4 July 2001

The Crew Chiefs performed excellent maintenance on our aircraft to keep them flying. On only 2 days during our deployment did Operational Readiness (OR) rate drop below 100%! The Bravo Crew Chiefs continue to be the main reason we are able to conduct our mission.

Our resident Yankees (CW4 Frank "Connecticut is not a suburb of NY City" Northrop, CW2 Darel "Vermont is not a suburb of Connecticut" Gallagher, and CW3 Doug "I just talk Yankee" Edsall) were ecstatic to welcome our Beast contingent from Michigan that will be deploying to Bosnia with us. 1LT Fred Keller, 2LT Jeff Laing, SGT Louis Swift, SGT Ken Bartoszek, and SPC Anthony Kruckeberg will be a great asset to us and we are excited to have them joining B Co. Also joining us is CW2 Kevin "I'm as Southern alone as they are Yankees combined" Edwards from Mississippi. They all will round out our team very nicely.

Special recognition goes out to SFC Mark Kurek, who got very little sleep performing the duties as the Beast First Sergeant during the deployment (and to SSG Bruce Thomas who stepped up to fill SFC Kurek's shoes as the 1st Platoon Sergeant). We were also proud to award the Master Crewman Badge to SSG Terry Boardman at the beginning of our deployment.

The time is getting shorter to our activation dates. We still have some important tasks to complete (Door Gunnery, equipment loadout, and aircraft loadout). I encourage all of the Bravo Company families to take some quality time out with each other. Enjoy your Independence Day celebrations! God bless America.