Misawa ceremony gets personal for nine returning EP-3 crewmembers
By Wayne Specht, Misawa
bureau chief
Wayne Specht / Stars and Stripes
With a model of an EP-3E on a table in the foreground, crewmembers who were aboard the
Navy EP-3E surveillance aircraft that made an emergency landing March 31 on Hainan Island
in China, wait for a repatriation ceremony to begin Friday at Misawa Air Base, Japan. |
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — The journey is finally over for nine of
the EP-3 crewmembers who were detained in China for 12 days last month.
In the last month, the 24 crewmembers — aboard the Navy EP-3E
Aries II that made an emergency landing on China’s Hainan island — have attended
many homecoming ceremonies and other events in their honor.
On Friday, the nine crewmembers assigned to Misawa Air Base were
given a final “welcome home” by about 100 of their peers at the Naval Security
Group Activity.
Navy officials billed the event as a low-key repatriation ceremony
intended to bring closure to the crew’s virtually nonstop engagement of public
appearances, which culminated with a visit to the White House.
Appearing relaxed dressed in green flight suits, the eight sailors
and a lone Marine sat on folding chairs during the 45-minute ceremony attended by family
members and military people belonging to Misawa’s Cryptologic Operations Center.
Lt. Marcia Sonon, an intelligence officer aboard the flight, thanked
assembled crewmates who waited at Misawa as the 12-day drama played out on the world
stage.
“It was long, it was hard … and being able to come back,
seeing your faces and be welcomed like this, we thank you,” Sonon said in an
emotional, breaking voice. “From the bottom of our hearts, we’re grateful to
every one of you for taking care [of] those we love … and [for] taking care of us
when we came back.”
Although assigned to the Naval Security Group here, Navy, Air Force
and Marine Corps cryptologists, intelligence specialists and linguists fly aboard the EP-3
aircraft that stage monitoring missions from Misawa and Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.
The EP-3 that was struck by a Chinese F-8 fighter over the East China
Sea on April 1 began the routine surveillance mission from Kadena. It is assigned to VQ-1
“World Watchers” reconnaissance squadron based at Whidbey Island, Wash.
Wayne Specht / Stars and Stripes
Petty Officer 3rd Class Rodney Young, left, laughs as Petty Officer 2nd Class Kenneth
Richter examines a pack of cigarettes given to him Friday during a repatriation ceremony
at the Naval Security Group Activity, Misawa Air Base, Japan. |
Friday’s ceremony was brief, and it included more than a few
light moments.
Petty Officer 1st Class Shawn Coursen, known by Misawa crewmates as
being fond of sweetened breakfast cereal, was given a box of Lucky Charms.
Marine Sgt. Mitchell Pray received a T-shirt emblazoned with a high
school photo of him. Petty Officer 2nd Class Josef Edmonds, who proposed to his sweetheart
shortly after being released, got a prepaid telephone card to keep in touch with her back
in the United States.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Brandon Funk’s fondness for shower clogs
got him two pairs.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Kenneth Richter — said to be a hard-core
smoker — got a pack of cigarettes, while Ensign Richard Bensing, admittedly a
nonsmoker, was given a box of nicotine chewing gum used by those trying to kick the habit.
Wayne Specht / Stars and Stripes
Petty Officer 1st Class Shawn Coursen, right, shakes a box of breakfast cereal given
to him during a light moment at thea repatriation ceremony. |
Also honored were Petty Officers 3rd Class Jeremy Crandall and Rodney
Young.
Bensing missed a significant event while making the obligatory
publicity visits stateside following his release: his promotion to lieutenant junior
grade.
After lieutenant bars were pinned to his collars by the group
activity’s commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Propen, and a friend, Lt. Sherril
Stamey, Bensing addressed his crewmates standing behind him.
“There’s not a finer group that I would [have] wanted to go
through this extraordinary adventure,” he said. “I can’t say enough about
what they did, how they did [it], and in the fashion they carried it out. Guys, it’s
been a privilege.”
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