Nat'l Guard Return

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By Mark Wineka

Salisbury Post

They called it the Outer Banks Bar and Grill.

Members of the B Company, 1st Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment, considered the two-story, Hatteras-styled cottage in the middle of their large base in Iraq as refuge from the constant pressure of daily missions and the relentless preparation for missions to come.

The N.C. airmen scavenged and collected many of the materials for the shingled beach cottage and built it themselves. Alcohol wasn't allowed in Iraq, but there was imported Cheerwine, and their oasis proved a great place to get out of the sand and sun.

Dean Harwood, a Granite Quarry sign man, even sent over a sign for the grill.

Maj. Gen. William E. Ingram Jr., adjutant general for the N.C. Army National Guard, saw the cottage on a visit to his North Carolina soldiers last year.

It was a way to bring a little bit of the United States and, more specifically, North Carolina to an austere part of the world, Ingram said Thursday. But it wasn't really home.

The nearly 60 men and women of B company received their official welcome back Thursday afternoon from Ingram, other military and public officials and the public at large in a happy, emotional and proud ceremony at Catawba College's Keppel Auditorium.

In large part, the ceremony was a thank you to the National Guard airmen, the families who supported them throughout their year's deployment and employers who kept their jobs ready and waiting for their return.

Mayor Susan Kluttz, whose son is a Navy pilot, said she didn't know when she had been happier to say the words, "Welcome back to the city of Salisbury."

The mayor attended the ceremony here before the company's deployment to Iraq, and she said her prayers since then were answered because each and every soldier returned home safely.

As they return to their civilian jobs or full-time work with the Guard, Kluttz said, the men and women of B Company should have a wonderful feeling about the contributions they've made.

"You've served us and helped to keep us free," she said.

To say the company performed well would be an understatement.

Nicknamed the Carolina Killdevils, B Company had a 100 percent rating in missions accomplished, and its UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters -- used for moving personnel and light cargo -- flew more diverse missions than any other aviation company in the brigade.

"You've done everything asked of you and more," Ingram told them Thursday.

In Iraq, the unit flew 4,400 combat flight hours, never turning back because of enemy opposition, as it conducted multiple troop movement and insertion missions in support of the 155th Brigade Combat Team of the Mississippi National Guard.

Those missions led to the killing or capture of several hundred insurgents and kept many tons of explosives from ever being used by the enemy, according to Maj. Brian Pierce, the company commander.

In their 500 some combat missions, the airmen moved 12,000 people out of harm's way, Pierce said. And they did it against "a very dangerous, desperate enemy," he added.

Ingram added that B Company had more direct action missions than any other company in its brigade. "Direct action" missions are those where the airmen can expect action or resistance.

"These soldiers were in harm's way every day," Ingram said.

The soldiers actually came home a few days before Christmas and were able to spend the holidays with their families. The past week or so has been consumed with "out-processing" and demobilization at Fort Bragg and the armory in Salisbury.

Thursday was considered the company's last day on active duty. Many of the men and women have up to four weeks of transitional leave coming to them while they still collect Army pay.

Capt. Matt Handley, public affairs officer for the N.C. National Guard, says the unit then goes into a reset mode, but B company will not be placed in a rotation to return to a global war or confrontation for four to six years, unless men voluntarily opted to go with other units.

Thursday's ceremony drew several politicians and military brass, including N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety Secretary Bryan E. Beatty, a Salisbury native standing in for Gov. Mike Easley.

Easley attended the company's deployment more than a year ago.

Letters to the soldiers were read on the behalf of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., and U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, R-6th District, which includes part of Rowan County.

Coble said his district's constituents were proud of the airmen and their families, "who have supported you, prayed for you, worked in your absence and waited patiently for your return."

"In service to your country," Coble wrote to the soldiers, "you have kept the pride of our nation high and protected the freedoms we all cherish as Americans."

Coble added that the soldiers will now help shape the history of the nation and world because they know faces on foreign soil who have been freed from terrorism and are in need of building a new country and democracy.

Coble said the airmen also know the training and effort their missions required, the pride in accomplishing their missions, the ache of being separated from family, the perils of war and "the price paid for those who have aided, defended and protected and for those who will continue to aid, defend and protect."

With 60 different members of the company come 60 different stories of a year separated from family.

Lt. Dave Baker, a Blackhawk pilot, will soon be promoted to captain and commander of B Company. When he left for Iraq, his wife, Kristina, and their two small children rented out their Salisbury home and moved to Germany, where she could live with her parents.

When Baker returned to Pope Air Force Base Dec. 21, his family was still in Germany, and he still faced some "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" logistics to travel to Germany.

He made it on Christmas Day and surprised his 5-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter, who had no idea he was coming.

"It was our son's wish from Santa that his daddy was going to be back," Kristina Baker said.

Even though she spent the year in Germany, Kristina did not miss out on all the support from family members left behind here. "They always kept me updated," she said.

Dave Baker said Thursday's ceremony was outstanding. He assisted in the three weeks of planning that went into the event. He said he and his fellow airmen feel a sense of honor and respect from the community, even after being gone for so long.

Specialist Michael Clark, who lives in Spring Lake, said it meant a lot "that people actually got together and said thanks for the time we spent doing our job."

The Army National Guard Band performed before and during the ceremony, as B Company filed into and out of the auditorium as a group to standing ovations both times.

As has become tradition with every National Guard unit serving overseas, B Company returned the North Carolina state flag that traveled with them to Iraq. Pierce formally presented it to Ingram Thursday.

The crews of B Company performed some community outreach every day by dropping soccer balls to Iraqi children from their Blackhawks.

Finally the bouncing balls led back to North Carolina.

"They just want to be home," Baker said.

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