Local Filipino school children talk with U.S. Marine

Local Filipino school children talk with U.S. Marine Master Gunnery Sgt. Lewis Martin April 22 during at a groundbreaking ceremony for renovations of Tamaoyan Elementary School in Legazpi City, Albay Province, Philippines. The ceremony was one of five celebrating the start of humanitarian civic assistance projects that Philippine and U.S. service-members are working on as a part of Exercise Balikatan. Balikatan is an annual bilateral exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and U.S. armed forces designed to strengthen interoperability and country-to-country relations. Martin is the senior enlisted advisor for the U.S. forces of the Combined Joint Civil Military Operations Task Force.