Photo By Charles Marsh | U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. David Diaz, 346th Air Expeditionary Group biomedical...... read more read more
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Part 1: Escape
METETI, PANAMA – Panamanian children swarm the Meteti streets early in the morning, sometimes walking miles to get to school. Uniforms make them stand out, yet cause them to blend in with each other. For one Airman currently deployed to Panama, it’s a sight very familiar.
U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. David Diaz Iraheta, 346th Air Expeditionary Group biomedical equipment technician who is currently deployed from Keesler Air Force Base to Panama in support of Exercise New Horizons 2018, knows all too well what life is like for many Panamanian children.
Born in El Salvador in 1980, Diaz spent eight years of his childhood living in situations very similar to those he now sees while deployed.
“Coming here, it dawned on me that this is it, this is probably what I saw growing up,” Diaz said. “Seeing the schools, I remember this exact setting. It brings me to tears sometimes, because I look at these kids and I see me. I know how these folks live and I know their struggles.”
The memories, while from a long time ago, remain vivid in his mind. One memory in particular offered more inspiration for the future than any other.
“When I was younger, I remember being in a school, which was very similar to the schools here (in Panama), and I remember seeing an American helicopter land,” Diaz recalled as he gazed up at the ceiling as if looking into his past. “I knew it was American because it had the American flag. There was a military member who I remember seeing. I was so small and I remember just looking up and seeing him.
“It was so captivating. At that moment, I knew I wanted to do that. I have no idea what he was, he could have been a pilot or a technician, but I knew that is what I wanted to do,” he said.
A fond memory, which was quickly overshadowed by a dark cloud.
From 1980 to 1992, El Salvador was locked in a civil war. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, more than 75,000 people lost their lives, most of them noncombatants. And although it took a few years, the war eventually made its way to Diaz’s front door.
“As we grew up, the war started spreading throughout the whole region,” Diaz said. “I remember waking up to gunfire—that night that changed our lives. We crawled under the bed, my two brothers, my sister, my mom and dad. I remember hearing gunshots and the sound of explosions in the background. The war had finally reached us.”
It was that night, his parents decided it was time to leave. Under fears of losing his older brother to the military, Diaz’s parents decided to pack up and head north.
“They had enough. They didn’t want that life for our family,” Diaz said. “So that kicked off a slew of events. They were trying to collect money and things were being sold off. They hired an individual to take my mom, sister and older brother out of the country. They crossed the borders, all of them, illegally.”
After half of his family made it to the United States, it was time for his father, second oldest brother and Diaz to make the trip. Just 8 years old, he was forced to flee his home in Guazapa and leave behind the only life he knew.
“To this day, I still can’t imagine how someone could just leave everything, just to go somewhere else,” Diaz said. “We had a life there. We left all that behind. I remember traveling though just about every country in various forms of vehicles. At one point we were in a shipping truck with a bunch of cargo, and they had made a small area for a bunch of us to fit in. It had to be around 20 people. At another point we took a train somewhere, but as actual passengers. We were coached on how to say certain things so we wouldn’t stand out.
“When we crossed the river into the United States, we held onto inner tubes, my father holding both of us in his arms,” said Diaz, a husband to Leslie and father of two. “Then we crossed the U.S. border.”
Part 2: The Unknown United States
After his mother, sister and oldest brother made it to San Ysidro, Calif., Diaz, his second oldest brother, and father took the grueling trip. On the other side of the border, their lives changed forever.
“We made it to the U.S. with no problems,” Diaz said. “Then finally for some reason, the folks who had arranged to pick us up in a certain location in the U.S. had a miscommunication and we stayed in one place for a little too long. Within the third day of us being there, we heard helicopters and you could tell that [the U.S. government] found us. Everyone in the house scurried away, but my dad didn’t. He had enough and didn’t want to run anymore.”
The trip to the United States had been a long one.
“I remember crying, throughout most of the time (we travelled). We were young and had no idea what was going on,” Diaz said. “It was a really hard time, and a real hard memory. The only things we owned were in a backpack my dad had. What little money we had was stuffed inside toothpaste containers or socks, just trying to hide it away.”
They had been caught, a situation that caused a deep uncertainty about the future. But for 8-year-old Diaz, getting caught didn’t seem like such a bad thing.
“To this day, that was probably the best thing that ever happened to us,” Diaz said with a laugh. “When we went to the holding center, it was awesome. We were fed, we were able to take hot showers and were taken care of.”
Aside from the break and not being forced to run anymore, the news they received while in holding at the detention facility in Norwalk, Calif., roughly a 30-minute drive from Compton, offered a breath of fresh air.
“Because our home country was at war, we were allowed to stay in the United States under asylum conditions. It was the best thing that could have happened to us,” Diaz said.
“We were very fortunate to be able to apply for asylum,” he continued. “They told us that there was a way to stay, and it gave us the courage to actually seek those routes. I have met people who are in the U.S. under that legal environment who are still afraid to seek help, due to that fear of deportation. We were able to get the help we needed, and learn the path to citizenship.”
Although they were allowed to remain, the move had changed his family forever.
“The next years after that, it was more of being afraid,” Diaz said. “Everything we had when we were back home was gone. The family fun days where we would go to the rivers or ocean, they just stopped. The only thing we ever did was go to church, go to school and do homework. That was the lifestyle for the longest time.”
His families focus shifted to rebuilding a life in a place completely foreign to them.
“It was really rough, you could just imagine being a young kid in a new country, not speaking the language and not having any friends. It was rough.”
Though hard, the sacrifices his family made provided a safer future and the pursuit of the American dream.
“To this day is still help my parents out when I can, because I know how much of a sacrifice they went through,” Diaz said, the emotion in his voice becoming more apparent. “Leaving everything behind to try and make a better life. We went through a lot, from living in makeshift homes in garages and my dad holding two or three jobs at a time and still going to school. I still think about that every day and I know how much of a sacrifice that was.”
Part 3: Building His Own Life
After years of adjusting and constructing a life as a Californian, memories from Diaz’s childhood still held a grip on his future. The memory of that military member getting off an American helicopter was still engrained in his mind as a figure he idolized and aspired to be.
“Once I got through high school, because of that image, I wanted to join the military,” Diaz said. “I went to the recruiter and they told me I couldn’t join because I didn’t have my residency.”
Due to his family’s situation as asylum holders, but not U.S. citizens, he did not have the status he needed to join the military.
“There wasn’t anything else I wanted to do besides join the military,” Diaz said. “But, because they wouldn’t let me, I went to college and got my bachelors in computer science.”
Even after obtaining his degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills, his status in the United States still held him back.
“After graduating, I couldn’t find a good paying job,” said Diaz, who now holds an MBA from William Carrey University. “For the jobs I wanted, that paid well and were secure, they were government jobs. I couldn’t get those jobs because I wasn’t a citizen. I watched all my friends go work for these big companies that had government contracts.”
Time didn’t stop for Diaz. Citizenship or not, he still had to move on with his life.
“The first job I got was as a tech consultant,” he said. “It paid less than $11 hour. It had nothing to do with my degree and I hated everything about it, so I quit the very first day and went back to the recruiter. I had my bachelor’s degree and wanted to commission. They told me I couldn’t, because I still wasn’t a citizen, however, they would let me enlist.”
Diaz knew he want to join the military, but he still wasn’t sure which branch would suit him best. That decision wasn’t made until his friend, now wife, took the oath of enlistment first.
“She went ahead and did it, she just joined Air Force,” Diaz said with a laugh. ”We both signed up. We joined under a program where they wouldn’t separate us. Then we realized we loved each other so much, and got married.”
It was after joining the Air Force that Diaz obtained his U.S. citizenship.
“After joining, the military had a program that helped me obtain my citizenship,” Diaz said.
Part 4: Giving Back
“This opportunity came up, and although they didn’t say what for, they said it was a humanitarian mission and asked for volunteers who spoke Spanish,” Diaz said. “So I thought about and the next day, I volunteered.”
After volunteering, Diaz learned he would be supporting the New Horizons mission in three different provinces in Panama. He began his tour in the southern part of the country venturing out to three different medical clinics and assisting them with fixing their equipment. The southern team also consisted of leadership and support services along with Air Force civil engineers and Marine Corps combat engineers constructing three schools, a community center and a women’s health ward in the Meteti, Panama, clinic.
Once the larger medical teams arrived, Diaz moved up to Coclé province to ensure the operability of a variety of medical equipment, from dental support to basic generator support and everything in between. When not being tasked on equipment, he dedicated his linguistic skills to assist as a translator. They will also provide life changing medical services to people all throughout the country.
“To me, this is a blessing,” Diaz said. “I get to see all the good things coming from this. It easy to come here, build things and leave, but for me I can see what it’s like for these people and these kids.”
Growing up in El Salvador, less than 650 miles from Panama, Diaz had a childhood very similar to the conditions of the children in communities he is now able to help.
“In a lot of ways, the only way out of these environments is through education,” Diaz said. “I am extremely happy every time I see these building and everything we are doing, including the integration of doctors into local clinics.”
Being a biomedical equipment technician, Diaz has been able to use his skills to repair equipment in local facilities. His skills as a translator have also enabled New Horizons personnel to better integrate and help the local communities.
Beyond his skills as a technician and translator, Diaz’s life experience has driven him to become a true ambassador for the New Horizons mission.
“I try to wave and say hi to as many folks as I can, just to try and be that figure that I saw (so long ago),” Diaz said. “I try to have a positive influence on everyone I can, especially the little kids. Just like that pilot or technician I saw. Although he never even said anything, just seeing him smile was all it took.”
| Date Taken: | 05.05.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 05.05.2018 21:17 |
| Story ID: | 275864 |
| Location: | METETI, PA |
| Web Views: | 116 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, New Horizons 2018 Airman’s Work Hits Close to Home, by TSgt Dustin Mullen, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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