“The Wings of Normandy”

 

16 March 2002

 

Well, we are finally on the home stretch. Within approximately 3 weeks we should be home with our families. I can’t tell you how excited everyone here is about coming home to see their family and friends. Although I cannot tell you the date of our departure in this forum for security reasons, it is not secret information. Bravo Co family members can contact the Family Readiness Group or the 2-224th Rear Detachment (CPT Anthony Caruso or 1LT Keith Nunnally) for more detailed information. If you are unable to get the information you need, B Co family members may contact Lisa for details.

It looks like our de-mobilization process at FT Dix will take approximately 3 days. It will be a very busy, and long, 3 days so family members should not travel to FT Dix. There will not be time (or a place) for reunions while we are there. Our goal is to quickly and smoothly transition through FT Dix so that we may get back to our homes as soon as possible. Any distractions will delay that process. Our schedule at Richmond will be as short as possible in order to release your family member to you at the earliest possible moment. We will secure any sensitive items that we have carried home, put out some information, and release your soldiers to your care ASAP.

Some of things we will miss are the good friends made during pre-deployment training and our stay here in Bosnia. These include our Cav friends from Palehorse and Quickstrike Troops of the 4-2 RAS; the Air Traffic Control soldiers of F Co, 158th ATS; all of the local Bosnians that have supported us for the past 7 months; and especially SFC Walker who ran the Mess Hall (I really appreciated the Chinese buffet night!). Most importantly, it will be difficult to say goodbye to our fellow Guardsmen that selflessly volunteered to serve with the Bosnia Beasts. Their contributions, and other stories, will be told of; CW2 Kevin “The Viagra car is the best on the track” Edwards, 1LT Jeff “Sugarfoot—nuff said!” Laing, SGT Lou “You’ll know tracer fire when you see it!” Swift, SGT Tony “Sleep is a crutch” Kruckeberg, SGT Chris Watts, 1LT Fred “Have I ever told you that I write symphonies?” Keller, SGT Ken “9 countries in 13 days” Perry, and SPC Mike Hill.

Some of the things we will definitely NOT miss are; walking outside to go to the latrine, clearing our weapons every time we go into the mess hall, having the shower curtain stick to your butt because the stalls are so small, taking an hour to thaw ice off of an aircraft prior to a mission, putting on a Kevlar helmet and all of our “battle rattle” just to drive the 2 miles to Eagle Base, and some other unmentionable things.

Now that I have covered the near future, let me tell you what has been happening over the last several weeks. We have been extremely busy flying several hundred flight hours in a very short period. The weather has been remarkably beautiful and that translates into lots of flying. (Yes Lisa, the winds are calmer now!)

If you’ve been keeping up with the web site, you know that we have been very active with our school and the refugee camp. I had the pleasure of presenting a computer printer (purchased with your donations!) to the school and they were most appreciative! They expressed their extreme gratitude for your generosity, as well as sadness that we were leaving. I must say that I was moved by their gratitude and felt the same sadness of friends departing. I was amazed at the teachers’ resourcefulness, and impressed by their dedication. Teachers are the same the world over! After an excellent show by the children, we had a pleasant Bajrum (holiday) celebratory feast. As a thank you the teachers had made a table full of oletchno (outstanding) Bosnian dishes (mostly deserts!). Not to be rude…we all ate as much as possible. These teachers would be a dentist’s delight. I don’t think we could have consumed more sugar, honey, and molasses if we had wanted to! A highlight of the trip for me was visiting the pre-school classroom. The children sang a variety of songs, but the song that got the greatest response from us was the Bosnian version of “If you’re happy & you know it…”. They were delighted that we knew the tune, and that we clapped, stomped, and snapped along with them. We presented some toys and Bosnian children’s books (purchased with your donations) to the class. I’m sure we will be able to post a picture of CW2(P) Darel “Don’t take my picture—I’m camera shy” Gallagher conducting the presentation. Darel also arranged to distribute all the of school supplies that many of you sent to all of the other children.

We have had a “library” book shelf built and provided the books to fill it for the pre-school and dedicated it the memory of Rhianon Thomas Doerflein and Halilagic Emir. Rhianon was one of our Crew Chiefs’ infant daughter that passed away during our deployment and Halilagic was one of the Bokavici teachers son that passed away during the war due to the unavailability of his necessary medicine. We have also donated a significant amount of yarn to the women of our refugee camp in the name of CW3 Mark Becker’s aunt Louis for her contributions to the design of our company patch. This yarn will enable these women to provide goods for sale in order to become more self-sufficient.

I was proud to recently recognize our newest Pilot-In-Command, CW3 Phil “Please don’t take my picture, I’m also camera shy” Brashear. SPC Tung-Son Callies and SGT Warren Middlekauff were recently recognized as the B Co Soldier and NCO of the rotation at an old castle near Tuzla. This honor was well deserved by both soldiers!

This weekend we will have the pleasure of promoting PFC Brandon “My Mom would kill me if she saw me hanging out of the helicopter like this!” Marshall to the rank of Specialist. It is a well-deserved promotion! We will also pin the Russian Basic Parachutist Badge on CW2 John “Oh, that rule applied to me too???” Calley, and we will recognize and say goodbye to our Mississippi Crew Chief SGT Chris “But Sir, I only promised the Dutch Battalion a short helicopter ride” Watts. We appreciate all he has contributed to the Beast mission. He will be one of us always!

Of all the operations that have recently occurred, the most significant has been the arrival of our replacements. CPT David Bresser and the ‘Blackjacks’ of A Co, 2nd Battalion (ASSAULT), 25th Aviation from Hawaii are quickly learning the lay of the land here in Bosnia and will soon be in full mission posture. Every day they are another step closer to mission assumption and we are the next step to getting on the plane! David and his guys are currently our new best friends!

As I close out what will most likely be my last newsletter, I would like to personally thank all of you that posted messages to our soldiers on the web site. Although most were to individuals, we posted them in the ‘Shark Tank’ for all of the Beasts to read. Your messages brought a little piece of home to everyone here and they were greatly appreciated! For those that didn’t get a chance to post a message… don’t worry about it… Kelly McKenney and Chelsea Ramirez (and Aggie Gallagher recently) have provided enough messages for everyone!!

We are excitedly on our way home and can’t wait to be reunited with all of our family and friends. You all can be extremely proud of all that your ‘Beasts of Burden’ have accomplished during this deployment. They are too numerous to list in this forum. I will mention that our flight crews, while maintaining a 24 hour Quick Reaction Force capability and working 7 days per week for the past 7 months, have executed more than 2700 flight hours while accomplishing more than 1000 missions. Our aircraft have averaged 36 flight hours per month which is 22 hours more than the Army’s average and 28 hours more than our average back home. We have supported troops from 18 nations. We have supported our troops from the 10th Mountain Division and the Mississippi Army National Guard, and our Special Operations Forces.

For all of our accomplishments, we are more impressed with what you have done back home during this long separation.

We’ll see you soon!!!!!!!!!!

God bless America!

                                         NEAL J. EDMONDS

                                         CPT, Aviation

                                         Commanding

 

 

“Bravo carries the Task Force!”