By late afternoon, the Philippines-U.S. team had erected 24 tents and it was time for the U.S. military personnel to depart for the airfield and return to Manila and Clark Air Base. Their Philippine counterparts thanked them for the help and went back to work setting up the rest of the tents. On the return flight, the U.S. team also evacuated a seriously ill refugee to Manila.

The President of Joined Arms for Progress, a Philippine nongovernmental group, Melisssa Andes, wrote a letter to the editor in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, 11 March, saying "I heaved a sigh of relief upon reading that U.S. soldiers . . . along with our Filipino troops arrived in my home town in Draga, Albay to help build a ‘tent city’ for my kababayans (townmates) who were displaced by the eruption of Mt. Mayon."

The U.S. military contribution to care for the Mayon volcano refugees was small compared to what AFP Task Force Mayon did in caring for 73,000 refugees at 56 sites. But, sometimes, when capabilities are stretched, a small contribution is just what is needed to finish the mission. BALIKATAN means "shouldering the load together," and that is just what Exercise BALIKATAN U.S. military personnel did with their Armed Forces of the Philippines counterparts. They shouldered the load together to help the Filipino victims of the Mount Mayon volcano disaster.