Grace Bessel, 7, left, covers her ears as F-15E Strike Eagles from the 48th Fighter Wing pass by on their return from a three-month deployment to the Middle East. Grace's father, Maj. James Bessel, was among the returning crews. Elizabeth Bessel, his wife, holds Jane, 21 months, while waiting for a reunion. (Ron Jensen / S&S)
RAF LAKENHEATH, England — Ninety days is a long time to wait and worry.
Ninety days is a long time to be separated from a loved one.
Ninety days is a long time to scratch X’s over the days on a calendar.
But 90 days is not one thing: It is not one year.
Families of the 48th Fighter Wing were reunited recently following a deployment by more than 200 of its members. They were away, in the Middle East, for 90 days, a standard Air Force deployment length, although the time will be stretched to 120 days in autumn.
The separation was difficult and stressful and passed at a glacier’s pace.
But wives waiting to be reunited with their husbands Saturday and Wednesday at the base said they tipped their hats to Army wives, who endure one-year absences from their husbands.
“I don’t know how they do it,” said Darci Beatty, wife of Capt. John Beatty, an F-15E Strike Eagle pilot, who returned Wednesday afternoon.
Her best friend is the wife of a soldier whose duty time in Iraq was extended beyond one year. From talking to her friend, she knows how it feels.
“They’re my heroes,” Beatty said of Army wives.
Crystal Cooper simply said, “I couldn’t do it.”
Her husband, Staff Sgt. Brian Cooper of the 48th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, returned Saturday with the bulk of the wing’s deployed troops.
Cooper said she felt sorry for those wives in the Army’s 1st Armored Division who had to put up with an extension of their husbands’ tour in Iraq, making them much longer than 12 months.
“For me, to do three or four months is long enough,” she said, while waiting for her husband to appear Saturday afternoon.
Marsha Allen, wife of Airman 1st Class Greg Allen of the 48th Munitions Squadron, said that Army troops also face a greater danger in Iraq than her husband did in a neighboring country, which the Air Force has asked not to be identified. But even then, she was concerned.
“I was worried. I worry all the time,” she said. “I’m glad he’s in the Air Force.”
Amber Scyoc, who was reunited Saturday with her husband, Staff Sgt. Robert Scyoc of the 48th Munitions Squadron, said, “I’m glad I’m not in that situation.”
Nicole Nisperos, wife of Staff Sgt. Ernest Nisperos of the 48th Munitions Squadron, who also returned Saturday, said, “It’s been a long three months.”
She knows, however, it could have been longer. Her father-in-law was a sailor and away from home for long periods of time, even in peacetime.
“I’m thankful that we’re in the Air Force,” she said. “My heart definitely goes out to the wives of Navy, Marine and Army [servicemembers].”
The wives are not the only ones impressed by the hardship caused by one-year separations for soldiers and their wives. Lt. Col. Henri Castelain, a weapons systems operator, returned Wednesday. He said soldiers passed through the squadron’s air base downrange on their way home from Iraq.
“You could see by the look in their faces and their clothes that they were coming from a year of hard work,” he said. “It was real to us what they were doing.”
Just thinking about the long separations makes Bethany Bush sad, she said.
The wife of Capt. Richard Bush, who flew back Wednesday, said, “I feel fortunate to have my husband, first of all, in the air, and only gone for three months. We’re blessed.”
