HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah -- Dressed in civilian clothes and with trash bags in hand, two Airmen visiting Hill Air Force Base celebrated Earth Day last week by sprucing up some of the areas around Hill’s trails.
Senior Airman Kevin Alvaran and Senior Airman Craig Sarnak, both assigned to the 49th Civil Engineer Squadron at Hollman AFB, N.M., met up for a couple of hours April 22 to pick up trash and debris.
The Airmen were at Hill AFB temporarily as part of a restriction of movement program that keeps deploying service members from coming into contact with someone exposed to COVID-19.
Although they did not set out to be recognized for their deeds, the Airmen’s efforts to care for Mother Earth unexpectedly caught the attention of the air base wing’s top leaders.
Col. Jenise Carroll, 75th Air Base Wing commander, and Chief Master Sgt. Christopher Walker, 75th ABW command chief, happened to be driving by when they noticed the Airmen crossing a road carrying trash bags.
Walker said it seemed “out of the ordinary” and so they looped around to meet the Airmen walking through a parking lot near the base's temporary housing.
After finding out what they had done and that they were TDY from Holloman AFB doing their ROM at Hill prior to a deployment, the two leaders visited with and thanked the Airmen for their efforts.
Walker was so impressed, he emailed their leadership at Holloman to let them know what had occurred.
“I can think of many other things they could have been doing besides cleaning up a base they aren’t even assigned to and I wanted to make sure you know how amazing your Airmen are,” Walker wrote. “It was one of those moments that allows you to step back, reflect, and truly appreciate the outstanding Airmen we get to serve with.”
News of the Airmen’s clean-up efforts also made its way to the inbox of Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne Bass, the service's top enlisted leader.
“It’s another example of how our Airmen never cease to amaze me. There’s a whole lot of good out there and by highlighting these things, makes others want to do right, too,” she wrote in an email.