Building relationships through sharing knowledge

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Michael Smith
  • 374th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
MACTAN-BENITO EBUEN AIR BASE, Philippines --  Awkward silences and blank stares are usually attributed to teaching in a foreign land. However, this was not the case for members of the U.S. Air Force 36th Airlift Squadron as they passed down airlifting knowledge to Philippine Air Force (PAF) C-130 pilots and loadmasters of the 220th Airlift Wing April 8, 2016, during Exercise Balikatan.

Balikatan, a Filipino term that meaning "shoulder-to-shoulder," is an annual bilateral exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the U.S. military, which focuses on the Philippine-U.S. partnership, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities. This was exemplified as the 220th AW welcomed the 36th AS with open arms and smiles during an all-day training session on performing night flights.

"It was very fulfilling to teach and have them be so excited about night vision goggles (NVGs) and C-130s," said USAF 1st Lt. Scott Brooks, 36th AS C-130 pilot. "This is something that I love to do and it was great to see how excited they were to fly on a C-130. It was a new opportunity for me and I'm fortunate to be a part of this exercise."

The day began with casual lectures on low-level night flying, use of NVGs and USAF loadmaster techniques and ended in a night flight on a C-130 over Philippine Islands. Many of the pilots involved recently graduated flight school and have not been assigned to aircraft, making this flight their first time flying on a C-130.

"I learned a lot from the U.S. loadmasters and pilots. Their gadgets are very high-tech and they know how to perform their jobs very well," said PAF Airman 1st Class Jack Navarro, 220th Airlift Wing C-130 hydraulic system maintainer and loadmaster. "Seeing the capabilities of NVGs was great. It lets us know that if we were able to get that ability here we would be able to land in many of the airfields here at night that don't have taxi lights."

After having the chance to get to know and work with the Filipino pilots, Brooks was confident in the prospects of their career.

"I'm excited about the possibility to work with the PAF in the future," Brooks mentioned. "There is no doubt in my mind about this new generation of Filipino pilots, they are 100 percent capable, willing and wanting to learn this stuff we're here to teach them. It's why we're here, to build relationships and friendships, so that's what we are doing."

When the flight concluded, Navarro said thank you to the 36th AS for sharing their knowledge as a part of Exercise Balikatan and hoped that in the future there would be many more opportunities for the two countries to share knowledge with each other.