‘What We Do Is Amazing’ Goodfellow AFB Shows Kids What Deployment Is All About

SAN ANGELO, TX — Goodfellow Air Force Base hosted Operation KIDS (Kids Investigating Deployment Services), a free event designed to familiarize children with military operations and the experiences of deployed service members. 

It happened on Saturday, April 27.

The event drew over 120 participants, ages 5 to 13, from San Angelo and as far away as Abilene.

School Liason Program Manager at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Kristin Donaldson, discussed the deployment simulation. 

She said that it gives kids experience whether they have a family member on active duty or know somebody who is. 

“It kind of shows them what those family members go through when they're deployed,” she said. “For kiddos in the local community that don't have any family in the military, it gives them a sense of ‘oh, hey, this is something that could happen if I were to go in the military, in the future.’”

The event's main goal was to spread awareness regarding the active duty lifestyle. 

“Also, it's a great community event to help bring all the kids together,” Donaldson said. “Sometimes our military families come on base, and they just stay here within the base. This helps them intermingle with community members and just kind of gets everybody on the same page.”

The kids involved were separated into five different “chalks.”

In military terminology, a chalk is a group of paratroopers or other soldiers deployed from a single aircraft. 

“The cool thing about this iteration is that they were service-led chalks,” Donaldson said. 

The five chalks represented the Air Force, Space Force, Marines, Navy, and Army. Actual service members lead all the kids within the chalks. 

The kids began by going through a pre-deployment phase. They went through shot records, took an oath of enlistment, had to get checked by dental, and received an ID card and dog tags. 

The groups then rotated through stations all over Goodfellow, including building clearing simulations, first aid, a fire academy, a K-9 demonstration, close-quarters combat drills, and a Nerf gun war. They even got to throw fake grenades and ride in a military hummer. 

Master Sergeant Eric Knepper, Readiness Senior Non-Commissioned Officer, said this is the 14th year this event has been held. 

“We want to make sure each of our service members understands what deployment entails,” he said. “Because it can be a little bit scary when mom or dad is leaving to go somewhere that they’re unfamiliar with. We want to demystify that process for them.”

He said another goal of Operation KIDS is to expose members of the San Angelo community to Goodfellow Air Force Base. 

“What I am hoping for, for the kids, is a greater understanding of what we do generally in the military when it comes to deployment,” Knepper said. “Specifically, what we do here at Goodfellow Air Force Base for kids that have never had the chance to come on the base before to see what we do here.”

Senior Master Sergeant Crystal Doepker, 17th Comptroller and Wing Staff Agency Senior Enlisted Leader, said, “It gives transparency to see what we go through.”

“Because having your parents leave can be a scary thing, and knowledge is power,” she said. “If you know what your parents might go through, you might realize that everything is okay. It makes you understand the process and makes you feel like you’re more brought into the decision-making.

“It’s really important to bring the families in so that they are involved within the installation. And I love that we were able to bring the community in so that we can show what we do because what we do is amazing,” Doepker said, mentioning that she hopes to see the event expand each year. “I think that this is a great opportunity to see how military members deploy and take away any stigmas that individuals might have about it.”