Airman enjoys unique duty at Central American base

Dick Benoit

Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004 | 9:16 a.m.

Air Force Airman 1st Class Daniel Rice, son of John Rice of Las Vegas, will be experiencing a tropical holiday season this year.

He serves as a firefighter at Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras, an air support installation in Central America that is home to about 500 American service members combating illicit narcotics trade and terrorism and providing humanitarian aid and search-and-rescue capabilities for the area.

According to Air Force public affairs specialist Jim Hughes, Rice and company carry out missions in the region to stem the flow of illegal drugs and to help out victims of natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes.

"My role here in Honduras is to provide fire protection and prevention services to the people of Soto Cano Air Base," Rice told Hughes. "I work strange hours, 48 hours on and then 48 hours off. I spend a lot of time training and maintaining the firefighting equipment. This base doesn't have many fires, so I spend most of my time training for emergencies and sharpening my skills."

Surrounded by steep hills and just six miles from Comayagua and its population of 60,000 people, the base is home to service members in career fields ranging from intelligence to postal clerks to search-and-rescue.

Most U.S. air traffic consists of transient aircraft dropping off people or supplies, but the base is home to an Army aviation unit that flies UH-60 Blackhawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters.

Rice says the Americans are guests on this Honduran base, and they live and work alongside host country nationals, making for a work experience of a lifetime.

"I enjoy working alongside the other branches of the U.S. military, and also the Honduran military and civilians," he said. "I find it interesting to see how they do things and how they live. This is a great experience for me."

According to Hughes, except for the occasional familiar fast food chain, the area around the base is surprisingly bare of the typical Americanized footprint that accompanies U.S. troops in sizable numbers.

"I plan to get out of the Air Force and rejoin civilian life after my time here is up," Rice said. "I am going to go back to Las Vegas to see my dad, stepmother and little sisters, and then to San Diego to see my mother. I miss all of my family."

In brief