Kadena squadron has
followed
detention, release of one of their ownBy Jan Wesner Childs, Okinawa bureau
Members of
the 390th Intelligence Squadron at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa have a personal stake in the
return of the U.S. EP-3E crew.
One of
their own, Senior Airman Curtis Towne, was among the 24 crewmembers detained in China for
12 days and now returning to the United States.
Squadron
members have followed the crisis closely and caught their first glimpse of Towne on Friday
morning during television coverage of the crew arriving in Hawaii.
"It
definitely started my day off right, put a grin on my face," Staff Sgt. Russell
German said Friday in a phone interview from the squadron’s headquarters at Kadena.
German and
most other members of the 390th were at home Wednesday night and saw on television that
the crew was being released.
"I was
ecstatic," said Chief Master Sgt. Gary Parks, operations supervisor for the squadron.
"Obviously this is something that nobody has taken very lightly."
German said
he couldn’t believe it when he heard the EP-3E had made an emergency landing on
Hainan Island and that the Chinese government wouldn’t let the crew leave.
"It
was quite a shock, pretty scary," he said. "You don’t think anything like
that would ever happen. I was pretty upset for the crew, out doing routine stuff and that
happening."
Towne, a
cryptologist technician, will return to duty at Kadena, but it’s not clear when.
Most of the
EP-3E crew is stationed at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington. Towne, a native
of Hayward, Calif., will go with them to Whidbey on Saturday, where a celebration is
planned to welcome back the crew.
Parks said
a party is planned at Kadena, too, when Towne does return.
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