Senior Airman Debra Campbell embraces husband Staff Sgt. Eddie Campbell on Tuesday after his return from an eight-month deployment to Southwest Asia. (Jennifer H. Svan / Stars and Stripes)
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — More than 40 returning Misawa troops deployed to Southwest Asia for eight months received a hero’s welcome at Misawa city airport Tuesday afternoon.
By the time the servicemembers’ commercial flight from Tokyo touched down at 2:25 p.m., dozens of family members, commanders and colleagues jammed the terminal’s tiny arrival lobby; tears, hugs, handshakes and back pats were plentiful.
“The sweetest sight of all, besides seeing their family members, is support from squadron members” and their commanders, said Brig. Gen. Bill Rew, 35th Fighter Wing and Misawa base commander. “I’m here to shake their hand and say, ‘Welcome home.’”
Most of the deployed airmen were from 35th Civil Engineer Squadron, base officials said, though a few were in communications, logistics readiness, the legal office and airfield operations.
Debra Campbell, a senior airman who works on Misawa’s Security Hill, was visibly jittery awaiting her husband, Staff Sgt. Eddie Campbell of the Civil Engineer group. “I’m on my seventh cigarette,” she said.
In the two years they’ve been married, they’ve been together just four months. “We met in the desert during Sept. 11,” Debra Campbell said. “We both knew what to expect.”
The Civil Engineer airmen are part of a larger contingent of about 300 airmen deployed from Misawa in support of the war on terrorism. They began returning in small groups about two weeks ago, officials said. The civil engineers, who left Oct. 5, were away the longest.
“We figured it’s been 219 days from the day that we left here,” said Master Sgt. Brenton Woolley, who works in the unit’s structure shop. “It feels good to be home, though it’s a little chilly.”
In a first for Misawa’s civil engineers, the airmen deployed to support a joint mission with the Army, said Maj. Monte Harner, 35th Civil Engineer Squadron operations flight commander. They spent a month in Fort Carson, Colo., completing Army training in weapons, convoy support and combat life skills, officials said.
Most of their time downrange was in Kuwait, where they maintained Army camps in the north and completed projects such as power upgrades to Camp Arifjan’s medical hospital. They loaded and escorted 64 convoys to deliver and set up 3,000 force-protection barriers at six Kuwaiti bases, Harner said.
Some of the airmen also deployed to Iraq where, at one Army camp, they built a wooden chapel, an Internet café and a legal office, Woolley said.
Woolley, who has deployed to the desert seven times now, called this one the most difficult, not because of its physical labor or its length but because it entailed working for the Army.
“The biggest challenge was figuring out Army terms and the Army way of doing things,” he said. The airmen, for instance, had to abide by Army uniform standards, he said: Cold-weather hats were out; sleeves always had to be down.
Master Sgt. Michael Underwood also found operating under Army purview challenging. “They’re more reactive,” he said. “They just want it done now; they didn’t do a lot of planning.”
Senior Airman Debra Campbell embraces husband Staff Sgt. Eddie Campbell on Tuesday after his return from an eight-month deployment to Southwest Asia. (Jennifer H. Svan / Stars and Stripes)
Airman 1st Class Ben Ogletree hugs wife Rachel at Misawa city airport Tuesday afternoon. Ogletree was among more than 40 Misawa airmen who returned from the eight-month deployment to Kuwait and Iraq. (Jennifer H. Svan / Stars and Stripes)
Staff Sgt. Jonathan Thomas of the 35th Civil Engineer Squadron at Misawa holds up a banner welcoming home fellow troops. Approximately 300 Misawa airmen were deployed to Southwest Asia; they began returning in small groups two weeks ago. (Jennifer H. Svan / Stars and Stripes)
Seth Camarillo, 16 months, waits for his father, Senior Airman Ramiro Camarillo, at Misawa city airport Tuesday. (Jennifer H. Svan / Stars and Stripes)
