by Airman 1st Class Kia Atkins
Pacific Angel 13-2 Public Affairs
4/29/2013 - Yogyakarta, Indonesia -- Staff.
Sgt. Endro Accettola, an electrical systems journeyman from Joint Base
Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, left his hometown of Balikpapan, Indonesia,
in 2002 at the age of 14. His first time back to Indonesia was with the
U.S. Air Force on a humanitarian operation called Pacific Angel.
PACANGEL is a joint and combined humanitarian assistance mission held in
various countries several times a year and includes medical, dental,
optometry, engineering programs and various subject-matter expert
exchanges.
"I really didn't expect to come back here as part of an Air Force
operation," said Accettola. "When I first joined the Air Force my dad
told me I might get to come back through the Air Force. I always told
him I didn't think that would happen."
During Pacific Angel, Accettola is the site lead for a clinic that U.S. and Indonesian service members are renovating.
"I feel like I'm giving back to my home country by helping out. It makes
me want to come here more often; after being in the U.S. for ten years,
I'm starting to lose my culture and my native language. I understand
what my Indonesian counterparts are saying, but my language skills have
become quite limited so it's a little hard to talk to them as well as I
would like."
Accettola said working side-by-side with members of the Indonesian military is a great experience.
"The members of the Indonesian Armed Forces that I am working with are
really good guys," he said. "They are hard workers and never complain.
They are very comfortable with the materials and they have so much
experience and knowledge."
Accettola said Pacific Angel is a great operation to show the world that
the U.S. military is here to lend a helping hand and hopes operations
like this will continue to happen to further improve relations in the
Pacific region.
"Once we leave here these locals are going to remember that the U.S.
military came here and helped them," said Accettola. "The job might not
be huge, but it's enough to impact a community and they're going to see
this and remember this for a long time."
Operation Pacific Angel missions were previously conducted in Indonesia
in 2009 and 2011. The first Pacific Angel of this year was conducted in
the Philippines in March, and others are scheduled for Vietnam, Sri
Lanka and Cambodia.
Monday, April 29, 2013
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