U.S. Navy Sailors and Dependents Cleanup Lake Ogawara

Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Benjamin Ringers | 201003-N-GR586-1172 MISAWA, Japan (Oct. 3, 2020) – Kousuke Otsuka, the assistant manager for the Misawa City Tourism Association, presents a gift to a participant of an environmental cleanup event. The cleanup event was held at Lake Ogawara and was open to US Navy Sailors and their dependents. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Benjamin Ringers)  

MISAWA AIR BASE, AOMORI, JAPAN

10.05.2020

Story by Seaman Benjamin Ringers 

Naval Air Facility Misawa

MISAWA, Japan – Sailors and dependents from Naval Air Facility (NAF) Misawa and tenant commands decide to spend their Saturday cleaning up Lake Ogawara, Oct. 3, 2020.

Forty seven Sailors and dependents volunteered in the environmental cleanup event.

“Environmental work is very important,” said Master-at-Arms 1st Class Tommy Hayner, assigned to NAF Misawa, the event coordinator. “It’s our community, it’s our planet ultimately, so we really have to try to keep it clean, and events like this really go a long way into assuring those efforts are being done.”

The cleanup consisted of picking up trash from the beach and surrounding area as well as yard work around the edge of the lake.

“Misawa is a very clean city, and Lake Ogawara is very clean, but with the wind and the storms that come through here, sometimes things get away from folks,” said Naval Air Facility Misawa Chaplain Lt. Cmdr. Jonathan Henderson. “So we want to come out here and just clean it up a little to make it even more beautiful.”

The volunteers had collected enough to make a small hill of full trash bags by the end of the event. Kousuke Otsuka, the assistant manager of the Misawa City Tourism Association, showed his gratitude by presenting gift bags to the children that participated.

“With these community relations, everybody benefits from this,” said Hayner. “We help out the local community who hosts us, and in turn, the impact is a lot deeper because it really strengthens the bonds between us and our host nation of Japan”

Henderson also hopes events like these help with community relations.

“It shows the locals that while we are here, this is our home, just like it’s their home, and we care about it just as much as they do,” said Henderson. “ We are part of this community, we’re not just here for a mission, we’re not just here because the military tells us to, we’re here as part of this local community and we want to continually build good relationships with them.”

NAF Misawa provides aviation and ground logistics support and services to all permanent and transient U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps forces in Northern Japan.

For more news from Naval Air Facility Misawa, visit https://www.cnic.navy.mil/misawa/index.htm or check out our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/nafmisawa.

• Date Taken: 10.05.2020
• Date Posted: 10.05.2020 03:43
• Story ID: 380219
• Location: MISAWA AIR BASE, AOMORI, JP