The highly anticipated Beyond the Horizon opening day ceremony has finally arrived.
This year’s BTH deployed nearly 800 U.S. service members from the Army – including National Guard, Active Duty and Reserve components – Air Force and Marines to work with the El Salvadorian military and civic agencies in an effort to bring vital services and resources to rural El Salvadorian communities.
Successfully completed under budget and 10 days ahead of schedule, the 2018 BTH mission was to build four schools – the Canton el Amate schoolhouse, the Escolar Santa Rita schoolhouse, the San Marcos de la Cruz schoolhouse and the Ulappa schoolhouse – and one health clinic – Unidad Clinica de Salud.
“I believe that everyone left with their heads held high and their chests poked out knowing that they made a difference in El Salvador,” LTC Heidelberg said.
Service members deployed as part of Combined Joint Task Force Hope. Members of the task force were deemed “warriors,” as the group included members from the multiple Service branches.
“I think it’s a great exercise, a great mission and it’s certainly very rewarding, not only for the individual Soldier, but also for [our] country,” said COL Dwayne Jarriel of Joint Force Headquarters, Florida Army National Guard.
National Guard Soldiers and Airmen from 13 States participated in the mission. The 90-day mission was broken into six rotations of 148 service members each, all led by the Florida Army National Guard. With COL Jarriel leading the first leg of the mission and LTC Heidelberg leading the second leg, the Florida Guard was in charge of the overall logistics for construction as well as ensuring all Soldiers were kept on task.
“I was honored and fortunate enough to be the task force engineer commander, so I was responsible for all the engineer forces who did the actual construction,” explained LTC Heidelberg. “It was a privilege to be involved in that mission in El Salvador. It was a great humanitarian mission and a great learning experience, but it was also an honor to represent Florida and the Army National Guard.”
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