USAG Japan helps youth celebrate homecoming tradition overseas

CAMP ZAMA, Japan - The Camp Zama community, including U.S. Army Garrison Japan personnel, helped youth experience a taste of homecoming spirit here Thursday.

The garrison command team led a parade across the installation, allowing Zama Middle High School students to enjoy the American tradition ahead of the homecoming football game the next day.

Standing in the bucket of a ladder fire truck, Col. Marcus Hunter, garrison commander, and Command Sgt. Maj. David A. Rio, garrison senior enlisted leader, waved to onlookers as the parade inched its way past several office buildings.

Employees waited outside to watch the procession, as did Japan Ground Self-Defense Force members and others in the community who lined the streets along the parade route.

With more U.S. Army units marching in the parade compared to the previous year, Rio said he appreciated everyone involved to make it a special occasion for the students.

"It's just one more symbol of how our small base here in the middle of Japan is a community," Rio said. "This is something you see in small towns across America, and this is just one more iteration of that, and it's one more opportunity for us to bring our community together."

Garrison directorates helped plan and participate in the parade and a bonfire that night, which firefighters and Directorate of Public Works employees oversaw on Rambler Field.

Leading the parade in his military police vehicle, Staff Sgt. Jeremy Bachman, assigned to the 88th Military Police Detachment, ensured the route was safe and free of other traffic.

"Usually when you go overseas, some of the traditions from the U.S. are stopped or drastically [trimmed] down," he said of the event. "So, to continue these types of traditions, I think assists the community quite a bit."

Throughout the parade, members of the high school football team and other sports teams and groups rode on slow-moving vehicles as they tossed candy out to children on the sidewalk.

Adrian Santiago-Cruz, quarterback on the football team, said he liked seeing so many community members support them in the parade before their game against Edgren High School.

Santiago-Cruz, who moved here from Georgia, said he was eager to participate in the parade for the first time after hearing about it from fellow students.

"I feel like in this community everybody knows each other, and it helps boost the excitement and how fun the activity is," he said. "In Georgia, only a certain amount of people showed up but here everybody shows up and they support their school."

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Eric Rosales, assigned to the 374th Communications Squadron at Camp Zama, and his family watched the parade as it passed by the commissary on Ishinomaki Avenue.

"We're here to help support the team playing tomorrow in their homecoming game," he said, "and make sure that they know that parents, family members and Camp Zama are all here to support them."

His wife, Mishel Rosales, a substitute teacher at Arnn Elementary School, said the homecoming events increase the morale of the students.

"It helps the children keep that school spirit alive with each other," she said.

While their 7-year-old daughter, Emma, waved and asked for candy from parade participants, the Rosales also had their 12-year-old daughter, Delilah, in the parade as part of the Youth Center's Torch Club.

"The kids look forward to events like this," Mishel said, "especially because they get to see their friends and… say 'Hi' to everybody."

Following the parade, Sgt. 1st Class Jimmie Gilchrist, operations sergeant for the Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security, said he was glad about helping organize it.

He said that the DPTMS held meetings with school officials and coordinated with military units to ensure a successful event.

"It helped bring the community together," he said, "and it let the high school have the onus on some of their activities and know that the garrison and the tenant units do support their activities and will come out and participate."

Gilchrist said the collective effort of garrison assets, which also included assistance from the Directorate of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation and the Safety Office, was key to having the events come to fruition.

And while the festivities were intended for the students, the experience also had adults reminiscing about their past.

"It helps bring back those memories that we had of doing a homecoming parade," Gilchrist said. "It just brought back that nostalgia for us."

Related links:

U.S. Army Garrison Japan news

USAG Japan official website

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