America Sends Holiday Cheer From The Skies
Koror Island, Republic of Palau. (December 11, 2023): For the people of this tiny island, giant warplanes overhead mean only one thing, a shower of American generosity falling from the skies. In this photo by Yasuo Osakabe, U.S. Air Force Captain Miranda Bapty flies over Palau during Operation Christmas Drop, the Department of Defense’s longest running humanitarian and disaster relief mission. Every year, the 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron flies its C-130J Super Hercules aircraft over Palau to deliver bundles containing donated non-perishable food, fishing supplies, schoolbooks, and toys for the islands' children.
Operation Christmas Drop began in 1952 after U.S. B-29 Superfortress crews saw islanders waving at them from the island of Kapingamarangi, 3,500 miles southwest of Hawaii. In the spirit of Christmas, the aircrew dropped a bundle of supplies attached to a parachute to the islanders below, giving the operation its name. Today, air drop operations include more than 50 islands throughout the Pacific spanning distances nearly as wide as the United States.
A week before the drop, volunteer Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and civilians assist in sorting the donations while parachute riggers built dozens of boxes to hold the materials securely for the air drops. During the actual flights, air crews were linked to the villages via ham radio as they flew overhead to drop their bundles at specified drop zones. These humanitarian operations have the added benefit of giving air crew invaluable real-world training and experience in conducting airdrops. This year, these crews provided critical supplies to 56 Micronesian islands impacting about 20,000 people.
Flying forces from the U.S. Air Force, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, the Republic of Korea Air Force, and the Royal Canadian Air Force, and ground operations forces from the Philippine Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force worked together to conduct these low altitude air drops. The 374th Airlift Wing from Yokota Air Base, Japan led the operation with assistance from the 515th Air Mobility Operations Wing at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.
For the pilots and crews performing these humanitarian missions, this is just another way to deliver presents at Christmas.