“The Wings of Normandy”

 

16 January 2002

 

All of us here at Comanche Base hope that your Christmas and New Year’s were a pleasant diversion from all that is happening around the world. We all know that the holidays were a milestone for our loved ones and us as they signify the “hump” of our deployment. We are now within the 90-day mark of coming home. That is significant, as a lot of us have been away from home for approximately 150 days. We will be extremely busy between now and then continuing to accomplish all of our steady state missions while preparing for our movement home.

Although, Christmas was another workday for us here in Bosnia, we tried to bring some spirit from home to our part of the world. We started the day with Garry ‘Santa’ Kusilka and me (his elf) passing out the presents to Task Force Pegasus that Kathy and Lance Mattisz so generously sent to us. (And yes Kathy & Bigelow, we did wear our special caps!) We also wore our bathrobes (Garry his Christmas green & me my elfish Gator orange & blue!) over our uniforms in order to get completely into character. Major General Blum was quite shocked when we opened the Mess Hall doors and literally ran into him. His quote was “If you didn‘t look like Santa & his elf, I’d swear you were a couple of aviators!” The real Santa of the day though was SGT Troy ‘Santa CAN wear his pistol holster’ Patterson. Troy graciously agreed to don his costume to deliver gifts to the refugee camp that we sponsor. Although they are Muslim, they are moderate in their beliefs and they are used to celebrating Christmas with their Christian friends and neighbors. And of course, children are the same everywhere, any excuse to receive presents is a valid one! Troy did such a fantastic job that his picture was published with an accompanying article in the ‘Stars and Stripes’ newspaper. Our plan, choreographed by CW2 Darel Gallagher, was to carry our Crew Chief Santa along on a training flight (sleigh) to a helicopter-landing site close to the camp, but our daily fog companion relegated our trip to the bus. It was still an extremely gratifying and successful outing. There will soon be a more detailed trip report added to this site.

I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank all of you who have generously donated money and items, and organized donation drives for our refugee camp and our elementary school. Your response has been absolutely overwhelming! It makes us very proud of you and our country when we see the excitement in the faces of our friends when they exclaim, “Here come the Americans” knowing that we are there to help them. Check out the trip reports to see the results of your generosity.

A reminder to all the moms and wives out there…please send early year photos of your ‘Beast’ soldier so that we may add to our collection. SGT Johnny “Hair” Rivera and CW3 Bubba “GQ” McKenney want some company! You can mail them to me. I will take care of the photos and return them to you.

Now that everyone has recovered from the holidays and settled back into their normal routines, it’s time for me to catch you up with the goings on of your Bravo Beasts. The snow has slowed down somewhat over the past couple of weeks, but it started up again last night. It also seems to be getting colder. We are definitely ready for the warmer climate of Virginia, Mississippi, and even Maryland and Michigan! Those of you in the Richmond area can thank us for sending you 8” of our snow so that you could shiver with us!

Just before Christmas we were visited by a contingent from the Virginia National Guard. We had an opportunity for the Adjutant General, MG Claude Williams, to recognize some outstanding soldiers with Certificates of Achievement and presentation of his coin. Within B Co, we have also recognized significant aviation achievement with the award of Virginia Night Fighter patch to 1LT Fred “Don’t call me Helen” Keller. Although he has been a Night Vision Goggle Pilot-In-Command in the Virginia Army National Guard for a long time, I want to recognize CW4 Sam Gugliotta for completing his NVG mission training in early November. I also had the honor of pinning the Aircraft Crewman Badge on PFC Brandon “Snuffy” Marshall. This is very significant because Brandon is our only infantryman Door Gunner. This is quite an accomplishment for Brandon, and we are all proud of him.

We also recently designated six new Door Gunners after they completed the range at Glamoc…in the snow! The French Canadians at the ‘Sawmill’ were gracious hosts to our crews that spent the better part of a week down there due to the weather. There’s nothing like flying a Door Gunnery exercise while wearing Night Vision Goggles in snow showers! Our newly designated Gunners are SGT Lou Swift, SGT Ken Perry, SGT Chris Watts, SGT Tony Kruckeberg, SPC Mike Hill, and PFC Brandon Marshall. Congratulations!

While I have the opportunity, I would like to thank all of the members of the 2-224th Aviation’s Family Readiness Group. We all enjoy looking at the banners that you’ve sent as they hang in the mess hall. The messages and pictures on the banners bring smiles to everyone’s faces. A special thanks to Rebecca Newman for all of her hard work with the Christmas presents for the children!

There have been a couple of personnel changes within the ranks of the ‘Beasts’. We all bid farewell to WO1 Jesse “Chelsey thinks you are a bad influence & won’t let me play with you guys anymore” Ramirez. Jess, we’re all hoping that you are feeling better and that you’re on your way to a full recovery. (It looks like I won’t be the bottom guy on the chum chart after all! - -inside ‘Beast’ joke). I went by your room yesterday and there a bunch of guys going through your stuff!

We also sadly said goodbye to SPC Rob Doerflein. Rob, our thoughts and prayers are with you and Stephanie during this difficult time after the loss of your baby girl, Rhianon Thomas Doerflein.

As Jesse and Rob headed back to the U.S., we have finally located the long lost SPC Buzz “Buzz IS my nickname” Hagen. Rumors abounded that he had been traveling around Europe as a beer taster, but he has finally made it to Comanche Base to join his brothers in arms! We are very happy to have him here with us. (Now I don’t have to answer anymore “Where’s Buzz?” questions!)

As we start our last 2 ½ months here in Bosnia-Herzegovina, our thoughts begin to focus on our upcoming re-deployment. We still have some important missions to conduct while we are here and we will remain focused on safely accomplishing those missions. You can be very proud of what your soldiers have accomplished to date!

We all miss our family and friends back home! Please continue to leave your messages in our guest book! We really enjoy reading and sharing them. We also enjoy hearing from veterans that have visited our site. Until next time…

God bless America!

                                         NEAL J. EDMONDS

                                         CPT, Aviation

                                         Commanding

 

 

“Bravo carries the Task Force!”