 I'm Private First Class Friedrich Paulina and I went for a mission to Western villages in Alaska and yeah we just hopped in as volunteers and we figured out what our job is over there. Around eight days over a week for sure. I was moving rocks and we were also building our fixing roofs. We were working with a community helping with everything what we can put our hands on and talking to them just making sure that they find it all right they survive the storm and also trying to figure out what is the damage. They probably are the most positive people I haven't met they really they have a lot of fun the kids were like helping us all the time like they were all over the place smiling waving to us and it was a huge success if it comes to like welcoming us like it was we felt really warm. We definitely made a lot a huge network meeting all the volunteers and the community and the people in villages and kids and we definitely had a lot of new experience and we saw the places that we for sure some of us never been to and never seen. The most difficult part making my bun in the morning. Now I just adjust I just take everything as it is and try to find all the positives in my job because you know sometimes there are a little bit tough moments like a rainy weather or something like that suck it in and just move forward and it's going to be fine. We were very lucky to have a beautiful blue sky in Alaknik for example or in Bethel which is not very I heard it's not very often with so yes it wasn't a bad. Definitely no more about culture and native culture and hearing the language you pick see how they live all the teasing and fermentation from the kids that was a huge fun they were really really fun. Yes all this new experience that I didn't know from the first hand how it looks like I only heard stories so I hope we're gonna go back to Bethel and eat pizza at Phyllis. My name is David Lapuz I am a 15 tango that is a Black Hawk repair and I'm attached with 207 Delta Company and I was sent to Bethel and I was there they sent me over to Kipnook and to Mountain Village so those were the two areas that I was sent towards to help with the village there. The thing is when we got there the village was how can I put this into words they were self-sustaining so pretty much the majority of the big damages that was dealt they actually did manage to do it themselves. We came over there we did some assessments we helped out with the village just with their day-to-day living you know and to exchange some information between each village what they would need for the future and all that stuff. For the most part I was mostly just doing the assessment portion for the villages that we got sent to the ones that I got sent to weren't really hit that hard by the hurricane so you know it was just figuring out logistic stuff to where figuring out what materials they need in order to recover from the incident. I would say their spirits were high there were some homes that were hit pretty bad but none to where it's instant where we need to repair it instantly but other than that everybody was in good hopes they were really happy seeing the National Guard come in you know to aid them during this hard time. I would say the most challenging part for me was I feel like I could have done more because I have to admit I did go to some easy you know parts of the villages other than that seeing like my other soldiers fellow soldiers fellow guardsmen rather they were all doing great they were helping out with debris removal and all that stuff and I felt you know I could have done more but you know the best I could do was do the assessment for the villages find out what we can send to them in order to help them build up you know or prepare for that next disaster or hopefully no more disasters after that. My favorite part was seeing how these small communities you know team up together in order to help themselves out and it feels nice to be part of their culture seeing how they live day to day and how they you know organize themselves in order to prepare for the for these disasters. It was a great feeling when it came to going out there to the remote villages seeing all these different people all these different cultures and the way how their community managed to you know help themselves out and it's nice being able to go there giving that reassurance that the state is here for them. I am Terrell Jermaine I am a hydraulic specialist and I'm attached to the 176 maintenance squadron. I was located in multiple different locations mainly Bethel but from there I was transported out to Newtok and Lucknow. Mostly the situation in Newtok was interesting because they're right next to a river there and they had lost a lot of erosion from the riverbank so they were losing a lot of ground during the storm and then also the flooding had spilled over a few of their waste fuel tanks spilled spilled over so we were cleaning up hazmat there and then in Lucknow goes a lot of debris removal and a couple of roofs that were torn off. We did end up being able to troubleshoot their fuel pump wasn't working we were able to troubleshoot that for them which was pretty good and get that running back so they could keep pumping fuel to their boats and stuff and didn't have to use their hand pump anymore but mostly I was just there as a extra pair of hands helping out wherever I could. The damage was pretty moderate in Newtok they definitely had a decent amount of things most of it a lot of it was structural just their houses and stuff the way they were set up on the muskeg it definitely shifted a lot of them so there was a lot of leveling issues and such and then in Lucknok there was a it had flooded their landfill so a lot of debris was washed out around the village so we helped clean that up hopefully everyone's still sleeping with dry roofs over their head now so should be. I say they are prone to flooding that's why their houses are up on stilts but a type storm like this isn't super normal so it definitely an adverse impact that they weren't quite used to. I think the biggest challenge we faced was probably just coordinating with the locals trying to help them understand why we were there and get them to let us help them fix their stuff they're pretty self-sufficient but then once they realized that we were there to help and they could use us for things then we got a lot of stuff done. My favorite part was learning how to play a game called Junkyard it's a basketball game from the school kids in Lucknok after the duty day we were staying there overnight and they taught us how to play that game and that was a lot of fun. I feel very fulfilled in this mission this is what I signed up to do so it was very fulfilling to be able to go out there and actually help my community that's what I signed up for so it was a 50 gallon drum that had it didn't fully spill but it had tipped over and was leaking out it was in their containment area though so it was mostly just putting down pads soaking up that fuel so it didn't get out of their containment area into the actual wildlife ground.