MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI, Japan -- Earth Day first began on April 22, 1970, in the United States when more than 20 million Americans rallied in the streets around the nation to create awareness on the deterioration of the environment.
Today, Earth Day is celebrated all over the world from bike-ride demonstrations in Moscow to underwater cleanups in Egypt.
Coming together in the same spirit, Marines and sailors from around the station gathered to clean the seawall along Penny Lake here in celebration of Earth Day June 18.
Service members from Marine Aircraft Group 12, Marine Wing Support Squadron 171, Combat Logistics Company 36, and Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron participated in the event.
Chuck Hill, an environmental protection specialist with the environmental division and facilities department here, said though Earth Day was on April 22, the station wanted to celebrate it more than once a year, and the cleanup was a way of doing that.
Service members spent the morning removing trash and debris from the seawall to help beautify the air station and prevent nautical hazards along the area.
Marines and sailors rummaged through rocks, branches and rotting wood to get at the garbage they wanted removed.
“The air station is pretty much clean already,” said Hill. “This is the one area that needs attention, so we decided to do the cleanup out here.”
Approximately 60 service members participated in the Earth Day 2009 seawall cleanup.
Hill said he hoped the participants would become more aware of the pollution around them and the community would also take notice of the efforts they were making.
“We hope the community will see that we are doing our part in keeping the environment clean and they’ll remove unwanted trash,” said Hill.
“Hopefully other people will take note of that and join in on the effort to keep the area clean.”
Many of the participating service members felt the same way Hill did.
Lance Cpl. Isiah Fagins, a motor transportation operator with MWSS-171, said he hoped his actions during the cleanup would inspire others to do the same.
“They say positive stuff is usually contagious, so hopefully everyone else that sees trash will pick it up,” added Fagins.
Although the focus of the cleanup was to celebrate Earth Day, the underlining thought on the mind of some of the service members was how their actions that day would affect their relations with the local community.
Fagins said he hoped cleanups on the station would show the Japanese locals that the service members appreciate the land entrusted in their care, and they intend to take care of it.
Fagins wasn’t the only Marine who felt that way.
Lance Cpl. Thang Nguyen, a food-service specialist with H&HS, said she hoped that when the locals see the positive work service members are doing, they’ll realize there are responsible military members who appreciate the area.
As the morning wore on and the Marines and sailors continued cleaning, some began to see a difference in what they were doing.
Some of the service members were surprised at how much they enjoyed their day during the cleanup.
“The seawall was very dirty, but it was a lot of fun cleaning it up, more than I thought it would be,” said Nguyen. “Most likely people that run the seawall will see the difference because we did clean a lot.”
The morning came to a close with the MAG-12 chaplain’s office providing a barbeque as a thank you to the participating service members for their efforts during the cleanup.
As the Marines and sailors enjoyed a menu of hot dogs and hamburgers, plans were already being made for another cleanup.
“We are trying to do this more often,” said Hill. “We are trying to get it to be maybe twice a year if not more than that — maybe later on down the road.”