U.S. Air Force Technical Sgt. Shayne Jolly is not in the throes of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan in the War on Terror, but he is providing valuable humanitarian relief in Central America’s second largest country.

The Bamberg native and 14-year military serviceman has already served in Korea and Iraq. He is now completing what he considers an equally fulfilling mission in Honduras, where he has been stationed at Soto Cano Air Base for the past two months.

“I work for the 612th Air Base Squadron. I specifically am an air traffic controller. My job is to provide air traffic controller services to the armed forces stationed here as well as any Air Force aircraft during times when we are providing humanitarian relief during any natural disasters in Central America and parts of South America,” Jolly said.

Jolly’s squadron operates and maintains the only runway capable of accommodating the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, one of the largest military aircraft in the world. In use by the Air Force since 1969, the C-5 is designed to provide strategic heavy airlift over intercontinental distances and to carry outsized and oversized cargo.

While Jolly’s primary mission is to provide humanitarian relief to the country’s residents, the unit of which he is part, Joint Task Force-Bravo, conducts military-to-military training; executive counter narcotics trafficking operations; human trafficking deterrence and engagement in civil affairs activities in conjunction with U.S. interagency partners.

“What I have to do with the counter narcotics mission is in a support role only, and I don’t see much of what they do,” said Jolly, who participates in Chapel Hikes as part of his activities within the local community.

“A large group of volunteers carry thousands of pounds of much-needed food to some of the remote villages in the mountains surrounding the base. All the food is transported in backpacks and through some very difficult terrain,” said Jolly, who will spend a year in Honduras.

“We also sponsor the local orphanage and have the kids on base every so often for a day of fun activities. Every aspect of what I do here is very gratifying. Our relations with the locals are great. So, thankfully, the danger in the area really only comes from the same sort of problems we have in the states -- gang-related violence and theft,” he said.

That danger, however, is what his wife of 14 years, Nancy, worries about.

“His base was once shut down for months. They’re trying really hard to keep the drugs down. The locals ... really get upset about that kind of stuff. One of their Army members were hurt in a crossfire, so they shut the base down,” Mrs. Jolly said. “It’s a dangerous place to be even though it’s not a place of war right now.”

Nancy lives in Orangeburg with her and Jolly’s two children, Victoria, 13 and Cody, 10.

“He describes Honduras as a beautiful country, but yet very, very poor. He will be there for a year. We’re counting the days on the calendar. He only has five years to go before he can retire. Being in Honduras, he actually gets to call more often than anywhere else he was ever stationed,” she said. “We really look forward to his phone calls. We hear from him at least every week.”

Victoria said she wishes her father were home but is working to make him proud by excelling in school and her extracurricular pursuits in basketball, softball and cheerleading. She had a simple message for her father.

“I miss you and be careful,” Victoria said.

“I miss my family very much,” Jolly said. “I always want them and everyone to know I serve my country with the knowledge that what I do helps to keep them safe as well as makes our country the greatest country in the world.”

Jolly’s father-in-law Tony Axson of Bamberg is equally proud of his son-in-law and his service.

“He’s always been there for his family, his loved ones and his country. You couldn’t make a better man than him,” Axson said.

Jolly is the son of Mary D. Jolly of Bamberg and is a 1992 graduate of Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School. He received an associate degree in 1994 from Georgia Southern University.

n T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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