Honolulu, Hawaii -- 2,100 soldiers, relatives and civilian co-workers grappled with 100 projects on their temporary home island of Oahu. The gutsiest maneuver: rappelling off the face of Diamond Head to pick up trash skewered on rocks by the wind.

We got into Hawaii a day early after leaving Santa Cruz, but unknown to us, it turned out Diamond Head Crater Park was closed for a few days because of maintenance work. I contacted the volunteer coordinator for the military's work with Make A Difference Day there to help. Finally, the Army spoke with the state and the state agreed to let us in. It was a pretty spectacular opportunity with the Pacific Ocean in the background and Waikiki in the background. So we wanted to illustrate in a very dramatic way what they did on Make A Difference Day. Even after the wrangling to get into the park, we had to change the shooting time. I had to rearrange for an afternoon photo, because we were photographing on the outer face of the crater -- and that was facing west. if we had shot in the morning, the crater itself would have shadowed out the area we were shooting. That would have been unacceptable. Waikiki, the area in the background, would have gotten sunlight, but the Army guys would have been shadowed out.

They created a harness out of rope and tied me in and lowered me down there. They said "Trust the rope, and we'll lower you down," so i did. The only difficult part was, when I was hanging in the harness they created -- it's not a commercial harness, they just make a harness out of the rope -- it just digs into your hips. I was bruised.

Staff Sergeant Norris, the Army's NCO of 2001, is the fellow in the photograph who is rappelling Australian-style down the face of the crater in the photo. Those guys are serious. They definitely mean business and know what they're doing and are prepared for whatever they say theyıre going to do. There was no hesitation on their part whatsoever.

Photo Essay by Charles "Stretch" Ledford
StretchPhotography.com
Make A Difference Day Photo Essay 2000