MIDDLETOWN, Pa. -- Helping people and communities is a mission that 201st RED HORSE Airmen enjoy.
Over the span of four months, April – July 2018, Airmen from the 201st RED HORSE Squadron, Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania rotated to El Salvador for Beyond the Horizon, an annual humanitarian/training exercise conducted by U.S. Southern Command in Latin American and Caribbean nations.
During BTH 2018, construction projects consisted of building two schools from-the-ground-up, plus extensions to two existing schools and an extension to the Zacatecoluca Health Clinic in the county of La Paz.
Helping a community, good work with good hard working individuals, and great final product, Master Sgt. Jed Reilly, electrical noncommissioned officer in charge said was his highlight during his two-week rotation.
Begun in 2008, Beyond the Horizon continues U.S. Southern Command’s proud legacy of humanitarian civic assistance exercise programs in the region.
“Beyond the Horizon is helping out other people who are less fortunate and give them our expertise to help them provide better and more stable installations for various things. It is important to give other people the chances and opportunities that we are given,” said Staff Sgt. Jessica Foster, 201st RED HORSE Squadron supply technician.
Helping out other countries isn’t anything new to the 201st RED HORSE; overlapping BTH, Airmen from the squadron were also in Lithuania on a deployment for training mission, constructing an air-to-ground training range.
The RED HORSE has a long history of helping people and communities, from construction projects outside of the United States to cleanup efforts in central Pennsylvania after Tropical Storm Lee in 2011 to building a 3/4-mile section of recreational trail in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.