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Commentary: LEAP Guardian Gives Back

  • Published
  • By Capt. Rafael Fermin

Exercise SAMA SAMA, Filipino Translation for ‘together’, is an annual bilateral navy-to-navy exercise between the Philippines and the United States. 

The exercise includes eight other countries with the participation of Royal Australian Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Marine National and the Royal Navy as subject matter experts. Meanwhile, the Royal New Zealand Navy and Thai Navy also joined as observers. 

Exercise SAMA SAMA serves as a vital platform for participating navies to exchange best practices, enhancing not only their own country's Human Assistance Disaster Response capabilities but also fostering regional cooperation in response to shared and mutual challenges as well as non-traditional concerns.

During this exercise, I had the distinct honor to be attached to the Marine Rotational Force – South East Asia, a new U.S. Marine Corps force design, as their cultural advisor. This was a unique opportunity as I was the first Guardian Language Enabled Airman Program to do so.

LEAP is a volunteer program managed by the Air Force Culture and Language Center managed, open to active duty officer and enlisted Airmen and Guardian, in most career fields.  LEAP deliberately develops language enabled, cross-cultural service members across the General-Purpose Force with working-level foreign language proficiency.  With these skills, LEAP scholars can better support the application of air and space power through strengthening partnerships, interoperability, and adversary understanding.

Being a native of the Philippines I saw this visit as an opportunity to give back to my home country. Because of this I had three non-negotiable goals I set for myself as a Guardian and Philippine native.

  • First, accomplish the mission, which is to be the catalyst for strengthening US-Phil and partner nation ties.
  • Second, was to represent the USSF well and provide a better understanding of who we are as the newest branch --the majority of participants have little to no idea what the USSF does.
  • Third, and most importantly, to represent the Filipino culture and its people, with the hopes of inspiring the youth, and hopefully break the invisible ceiling that is typically placed upon them.It has a different punch when they see a fellow Filipino in the force, especially in the USSF, as it gives them a sense of belonging and connectedness, sort of a representation at any level.

Seeing these goals through was a satisfying journey…

In a two-week span, we organized three community relations/outreach programs. This included school visits where we handed over hygiene products and school supplies to over 150 children collectively. We also organized the famous boodle-fight where participants gathered and broke bread together as a sign of togetherness. We also organized a few events to improve the team’s cross-cultural competency. We were ecstatic the U.S. teams were very eager to learn the Filipino culture, and really looked forward to engaging with the community to strengthen its relationship. Perhaps the most memorable event for me is seeing the children’s face light up, and the locals were very happy to see us there. It was especially rewarding this occurred during Filipino-American history month.

It was a goal of mine to ensure that U.S. Space Force is well represented there and that we had a valued role. It was very satisfying when the senior leaders mentioned the Guardian presence. It was also great to hand out patches to many members and Philippine officials. Perhaps my favorite memories were patching one of the Marines that promoted during the exercise and giving kids on the streets patches, really exemplifying on of our core values, connection. Although my job there was to be a culture expert, I did not miss the opportunity to educate members of who we are, what we do, and why they should care. There were lots of those opportunities to say the least and it was made clear that Guardians are true force multipliers, not just in space, but in creating a culture and building partnerships.

Our LEAP team was composed of three members, two Airman and me as a Guardian. All three of us gathered that first night, and it was clear that we all are like-minded and was driven to put our best foot forward to represent our respective branches, accomplish the mission tasked to us, and more importantly for the benefit of the Filipino people.

*If you’re interested in becoming a LEAP scholar, service members must demonstrate some level of proficiency in a foreign language, receive endorsement from their unit commander, and compete via a board process.  Selection to LEAP is based on applicants’ academic history and job performance, existing language proficiency, potential to achieve higher levels of language proficiency, and Department of the Air Force language requirements.

Commentary: LEAP Guardian Gives Back

  • Published
  • By Capt. Rafael Fermin

Exercise SAMA SAMA, Filipino Translation for ‘together’, is an annual bilateral navy-to-navy exercise between the Philippines and the United States. 

The exercise includes eight other countries with the participation of Royal Australian Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Marine National and the Royal Navy as subject matter experts. Meanwhile, the Royal New Zealand Navy and Thai Navy also joined as observers. 

Exercise SAMA SAMA serves as a vital platform for participating navies to exchange best practices, enhancing not only their own country's Human Assistance Disaster Response capabilities but also fostering regional cooperation in response to shared and mutual challenges as well as non-traditional concerns.

During this exercise, I had the distinct honor to be attached to the Marine Rotational Force – South East Asia, a new U.S. Marine Corps force design, as their cultural advisor. This was a unique opportunity as I was the first Guardian Language Enabled Airman Program to do so.

LEAP is a volunteer program managed by the Air Force Culture and Language Center managed, open to active duty officer and enlisted Airmen and Guardian, in most career fields.  LEAP deliberately develops language enabled, cross-cultural service members across the General-Purpose Force with working-level foreign language proficiency.  With these skills, LEAP scholars can better support the application of air and space power through strengthening partnerships, interoperability, and adversary understanding.

Being a native of the Philippines I saw this visit as an opportunity to give back to my home country. Because of this I had three non-negotiable goals I set for myself as a Guardian and Philippine native.

  • First, accomplish the mission, which is to be the catalyst for strengthening US-Phil and partner nation ties.
  • Second, was to represent the USSF well and provide a better understanding of who we are as the newest branch --the majority of participants have little to no idea what the USSF does.
  • Third, and most importantly, to represent the Filipino culture and its people, with the hopes of inspiring the youth, and hopefully break the invisible ceiling that is typically placed upon them.It has a different punch when they see a fellow Filipino in the force, especially in the USSF, as it gives them a sense of belonging and connectedness, sort of a representation at any level.

Seeing these goals through was a satisfying journey…

In a two-week span, we organized three community relations/outreach programs. This included school visits where we handed over hygiene products and school supplies to over 150 children collectively. We also organized the famous boodle-fight where participants gathered and broke bread together as a sign of togetherness. We also organized a few events to improve the team’s cross-cultural competency. We were ecstatic the U.S. teams were very eager to learn the Filipino culture, and really looked forward to engaging with the community to strengthen its relationship. Perhaps the most memorable event for me is seeing the children’s face light up, and the locals were very happy to see us there. It was especially rewarding this occurred during Filipino-American history month.

It was a goal of mine to ensure that U.S. Space Force is well represented there and that we had a valued role. It was very satisfying when the senior leaders mentioned the Guardian presence. It was also great to hand out patches to many members and Philippine officials. Perhaps my favorite memories were patching one of the Marines that promoted during the exercise and giving kids on the streets patches, really exemplifying on of our core values, connection. Although my job there was to be a culture expert, I did not miss the opportunity to educate members of who we are, what we do, and why they should care. There were lots of those opportunities to say the least and it was made clear that Guardians are true force multipliers, not just in space, but in creating a culture and building partnerships.

Our LEAP team was composed of three members, two Airman and me as a Guardian. All three of us gathered that first night, and it was clear that we all are like-minded and was driven to put our best foot forward to represent our respective branches, accomplish the mission tasked to us, and more importantly for the benefit of the Filipino people.

*If you’re interested in becoming a LEAP scholar, service members must demonstrate some level of proficiency in a foreign language, receive endorsement from their unit commander, and compete via a board process.  Selection to LEAP is based on applicants’ academic history and job performance, existing language proficiency, potential to achieve higher levels of language proficiency, and Department of the Air Force language requirements.