Commander meets NEW HORIZONS personnel and visits sites

U.S. Air Force Col. James Sheedy, 474th Air Expeditionary Group and 612th Theater Operations Group commander, out of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., greets Honduran navy Lt. Mauricio Morazan, Puerto Castillo Navy Base operations chief, after landing at the base in Trujillo, Honduras, June 10, 2015. NEW HORIZONS Honduras 2015 personnel have been working closely with the Navy base to use their facility as a staging area for their equipment. “New Horizons is great for building partnership capacity. Special operations has a saying, “You only build support at the speed of trust,” and we can’t earn the trust of a whole other country without providing some help. Being able to support the local population with life sustaining and life enhancing opportunities it’s a great way to help build and build friendship,” said Sheedy. Sheedy also visited exercise personnel at the Honduras Aguan well site, Gabriela Mistral primary school construction site, and saw the Dr. Salvador Paredos Hospital. Launched in the 1980’s, NEW HORIZONS is an annual joint humanitarian assistance exercise conducted by U.S. Southern Command with a partner nation in Central America, South America or the Caribbean. The exercise improves joint readiness training of U.S. and partner nation civil engineers, medical professionals and support personnel. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. David J. Murphy/Released)