35 Travis AFB Airmen Return From Deployment In Iraq
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE (CBS13) – From the fog of war to a welcoming morning mist, 35 airmen from this seasoned contingency response wing at Travis Air Force Base came home to happy hearts.
"I'm excited," one airman said. "It's been a long three months."
It was a critical three-month deployment to Iraq. The airmen played a key role in re-opening an airfield that had been taken over by the Islamic State in the battle for Mosul.
However, the opening of the aircraft door is all they were concerned about on this day.
Hugs played out like a first embrace as your song is being heard on the dance floor. As one sweet little girl made a happy dash to daddy, others held their loved ones with a "never-go-away-again" kind of grip.
The smiles and waves of emotion said it all.
"It feels amazing, it feels amazing. There's no other feeling like it in the world," said Senior Airman Matthew Hurless.
Especially when they've been gone during the holidays.
"It's extremely difficult, so the good thing about it [is] we have a lot of brothers and sisters out there that we can lean on," said Master Sergeant Michael Dean.
The Iraqi army leaned on these men and women from Travis during this particular mission.
On hostile ground, these airmen had to basically build a working airport in the desert from the ground up.
"They did a lot of damage to the runway basically to the point where, if you looked at it, there were huge trenches [and] huge craters scattered the entire surface of the runway," said Col. Rhett Champagne, commander of the 821st Contingency Response Team.
Now, after touching down on this friendly runway Wednesday morning, it was time to rebuild precious family moments.