Humanitarian assistance missions to Indonesia, the Philippines and other Pacific Rim nations have become the norm for the U.S. military as it attempts to create goodwill through good deeds.

Help was provided a little closer to home yesterday, as the Hawai'i Air National Guard teamed up with counterparts from Ohio to offer vision screening tests at Makaha Elementary School.

Class after class filed through the cafeteria for eye tests in which students were asked to identify progressively smaller symbols including a sailboat, circle, plus sign, flag, star and hand.

Li'a Gilbert, an 11-year-old sixth-grader, said it was "easy."

"I can see far," she said, adding it was "fun because you get to see shapes."

Margarita Alo-Chu, who teaches fourth grade, said most of the kids want to get their vision checked.

"Some of them have a hard time focusing on the board," Alo-Chu said. "Most of them don't get their eyes checked regularly."

Through next week, 38 members of the Ohio Air National Guard and about 10 airmen from Hawai'i are conducting free physicals and vision screenings at four schools on the Wai'anae Coast.

Physicals also will be given at Wai'anae District Gym 2 and Maililand Transitional Housing, and CPR classes are being held at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center.

Humanitarian assistance has become a key focus for the military, and the need by National Guard and Reserve units to prepare for emergencies in home states and abroad means that the medical assistance being provided here helps train up military units for real world missions.

"We're used to dealing with military members," said 2nd Lt. Curtis Palmer, a Hawai'i Air Guard member and the program manager for the Medical Innovative Readiness Training program.

"What we're doing is going to the community to do humanitarian things. It gives us an opportunity to work with children, the disabled, the disadvantaged, and also the elderly. It gives us a different look at things."

In April of 2007, 15 Hawai'i Air Guard members with the 154th Medical Group participated in humanitarian relief training in Phoenix.

The medical training on the Wai'anae Coast involves the 179th Medical Group of the Ohio Air National Guard in partnership with the Hawai'i Air Guard, state Department of Health, and Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center.

The Defense Department paid for the medical outreach training, which has a staff and equipment cost of about $200,000, officials said. Similar medical programs will be held in the Kalaeloa area at the end of May and in the Kahuku area in August.