Air Force airmen and other volunteers prepared packages for delivery during Operation Christmas Drop at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on Dec. 7, 2024. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam – Hundreds of volunteers crowded into a hangar over the weekend to decorate about 220 boxes of food, supplies and toys to be airdropped to isolated communities across the South Pacific.
At least 1,000 people from local charities, school groups and churches joined U.S. airmen and their families Saturday morning for the “Bundle Build” at Andersen’s Hangar 5, the finishing touches for the U.S. Air Force’s 73rd Operation Christmas Drop.
The packages were full of canned goods, water, rice, clothing, diving gear, first aid kits and toys. They are bound for 60 remote islands, according to Master Sgt. Theresa Buck, this year’s operation president.
This year air force contingents from Australia, Canada, South Korea and Japan pitched in to support the mission, Buck, a distribution superintendent for the 734th Air Mobility Squadron, told Stars and Stripes at the event.
Members of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force were among the volunteers at Operation Christmas Drop’s “Bundle Build” event at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on Dec. 7, 2024. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)
Some Christmas Drop volunteers decorated the supply boxes with elaborate designs during the "Bundle Build" at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on Dec. 7, 2024. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)
“We’ve had such amazing support this year that each box gets six toys,” she said. “So, for the kids on the islands, it gives them something to look forward to as well.”
For some volunteers, the event defines the Christmas season.
December Taisakan, 18, said she grew up on Yap, an island in Micronesia of about 11,000 people. She recalled how close to the ground the massive C-130J Super Hercules aircraft would fly as they dropped the packages.
“I remember there would be four boxes, and all the people from the island would come together and divide them among the families,” she said Saturday at the event.
Scouts from Troop 20 decorate a box for Operation Christmas Drop at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)
At least 1,000 volunteers helped prepare boxes for Operation Christmas Drop at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on Dec. 7, 2024. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)
One of Taisakan’s favorite childhood presents, a toy makeup set, was included in one of the boxes. Taisakan, who moved to Guam to attend Okkodo High School in Ukudu, said she was excited to be on the other side of the operation.
“It just makes Christmas better,” Taisakan said. She said she hopes the box she and the volunteers from Bethel Baptist Church decorated would make it to Yap.
Throughout the morning, volunteers added their own personal flair to the boxes, painting Christmas- or island-themed images and writing messages such as “Merry Christmas” or the operation’s signature “Love From Above” catchphrase.
Bruce Best, also known as “Brother Bruce,” a Guam-based telecommunications expert who has participated in the event for decades, said the supplies will mean even more this year due to several droughts and other hard times for the islands.
Operation Christmas Drop bundles carry gifts and practical supplies, as well as personalized messages like this one prepared at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on Dec. 7, 2024. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)
Bruce Best, wearing a “Love from Above” T-shirt and a Santa hat, discusses Operation Christmas Drop with a volunteers. (Alex Wilson/Stars and Stripes)
To compensate, supplies this year include extra water jugs that can also serve to collect rainwater, he told Stars and Stripes.
“The outer islands are really waiting, this is Christmas for them, and it’s the one day of the year where everybody stops - they stop school, they stop everything,” he said.
Operation Christmas Drop is the Department of Defense’s longest-running humanitarian airlift mission. It began when crew aboard a U.S. B-29 Superfortress dropped supplies to islanders on Kapingamarangi, about 3,500 miles southwest of Hawaii, after they waved as the aircraft flew by, according to Andersen’s website.
