It is true what they say. Not all heroes wear capes. In fact, none of the true heroes wear capes. They are ordinary men with an extraordinary mission. They do their jobs. But sometimes they go above and beyond their call if duty. showing that humanity still thrives in these trying times. With the current predicament the world is in, it’s easy to forget that. Even the Christmas Spirit might be struggling to cheer things up. But one man took it upon him-self to make the world a better place. He never wanted any credit for this act. But the world truly is a bizarre place to be in. His act not only became globally popular as the longest running humanitarian event in the world, it even inspired a high profile Netflix Original movie.

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Netflix’s Operation Christmas Drop is one of the most anticipated Holiday movies of 2020. The movie is actually based on a real life operation carried out by the US Air Force annually. It stars Kat Graham and Alexander Ludwig in lead roles. Graham’s character is a congressional aide who is sent to audit a US Air Force base with instructions to shut it down at any cost. Ludwig is the US Air Force Captain that spearheads Operation Christmas Drop from the said base.

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Graham plays Erica Miller, who intends to assess whether the United States Henderson Air Force Base is worthy of receiving government funds to carry out air-borne operations in Guam. Ludwig portrays Captain Andrew Jantz. He intends to show Erica that there’s more to the operation than what meets the eye. Operation Christmas Drop is a selfless act of joy that brings smiles to hundreds of under-privileged people. Jantz argues that the operation helps uplift the Christmas Spirit of the local community. But Erica and his superiors need a little bit more convincing. This all seems too good to be true. But the movie is indeed inspired from real-life events.

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Operation Christmas Drop is the longest running humanitarian mission in the world, supervised and financed by the Department of Defense.

It was the year 1952. The United States Air Force 54th Weather Reconnaissance Squadron was doing their routine patrol over the island of Guam. The aircraft was flying over Southern Guam when the pilot and the crew spotted something extremely peculiar. The island residents were looking up to the sky and waving at the aircraft. The crew decided to help them out. They got hold of whatever cargo they had in the plane’s cargo bay and parachuted them down to the islanders. The act was not a one time event. It was such a fulfilling attempt that the US 54th Reconnaissance Squadron came to airdrop cargo again the next year, and the year after that, and after that. One thing led to another and decades passed by, with the Department of Defense taking over. Ever since 1952, the USAF and the Department of Defense have been jointly running Operation Christmas Drop, dropping more than 400 cargo containers to the residents of the Island of Guam.

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The operation is now run mostly by volunteers from Andersen Air Force base and the nearby Japanese Yokota Air Force base. But it was one unnamed Air Force pilot flying a routine weather recon mission who spotted the residents and inspired the entire event. It was the same pilot that came the next year and the year after that. The name of the pilot is still not known. That is how you know he is a true hero. He never really took credit for his work. But look at operation Christmas drop now. It is now the world’s longest running air-borne operation. It is now an internationally coordinated event. The Royal Australian Air Force and the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force joined in 2015. The Philippine Air Force joined the operation recently to help out the Guam residents.

Although the movie shows the government trying to shut the operation down, the real life Operation Christmas Drop has the support of not just one but four different nations. The operation will probably keep going on for a long, long time.

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