Minot Airmen return home

  • Published
  • By Maj. Shane Balken and Airman 1st Class Jessica McConnell
  • Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  Monday afternoon marked an emotional return home for more than 200 Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen from the 5th Bomb Wing as family and friends anxiously waited in Dock 9 to show their support. Handmade posters and balloons from families were easily picked out in the large crowd as husbands, wives, and children reconnected and hugged after a long winter apart.

Nearly all the Airmen on the deployment returned home Monday but there are still a handful of maintenance and aircrew members left at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, with an undetermined redeployment date, said Capt. Brian Jenkins, 5th BW installation deployment officer.

Airmen from the 69th Bomb Squadron deployed to Guam in November 2010 after replacing their sister-squadron in the 23rd Bomb Squadron five months earlier. The deployment for the 69th BS marked the first time the newly reactivated squadron has deployed since the Vietnam War. In total, the ten-month-long deployment for the wing also marked another milestone as it has never had back-to-back deployments to the same location. A total of six B-52H Stratofortresses were deployed to Guam in support of U.S. Pacific Command's Continuous Bomber Presence.

For some families, this was the first time being separated for a deployment. Airman 1st Class Curtis Bish, 5th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, and his wife Tiffny have two daughters, Coral and Emilie, ages four and three respectively, and Mrs. Bish said their girls handled the separation well.

"Saying goodbye was the hardest part of the deployment," said Mrs. Bish. "We do have two children and I know it was really hard for them as well. But we knew we'd get to talk to him every day."

In addition to email and other social media, many families used Skype to stay connected.

"We Skyped daily, sometimes twice a day, so we got to see each other every day," added Mrs. Bish. "That makes a big difference - just talking doesn't always help."

Even families who have several deployments under their belts relied upon Skype to help the time go faster. DeAnn Wege and her husband Chief Master Sgt. Robert Wege, 5th AMXS, also relied upon Skype for this deployment.

"This was our third deployment since we've been in Minot," said Mrs. Wege. "We have two teenagers and they seemed to handle it pretty well. We talked to him as much as we could. This year we got to use Skype a lot too so that really helped a lot. We even got to watch the Super Bowl together."

Deployed members of the 5th AMXS were well taken care of with the help of the squadron's key spouses group and squadron members pitching in to take care of each other.

"My husband's shop helped us out a lot," said Mrs. Bish. "While we were gone on vacation, they made sure to keep our driveway clear, so that helped a lot. I just want to thank everyone for making it a nice and easy deployment. It wasn't as stressful as it could have been."

Heather Weaver, wife of Staff Sgt. Travis Weaver, assistant NCO in charge of the 5th Maintenance Squadron, said this was the first deployment her husband had been on since they were married.

"It was pretty hard to say goodbye," said Mrs. Weaver. "He and I are equal with taking care of the kids and everything else."

"This is the first time he's left since we've been together. I am recently retired from the Air Force due to asthma. So it was especially rough to transition from being a working mom with help, to a single stay-at-home mom," she said.

"Skyping, emailing Travis, and being able to get on Facebook to talk to him helped a lot," added Mrs. Weaver. "While I was here in Minot, the key spouse program helped me out a lot as well. And, they are actually continuing to help me right now."

Senior leaders were on hand to greet returning Airmen as they walked off the plane. "We are very proud of our Airmen and all they accomplished during the Continuous Bomber Presence deployment," said Col. Julian Tolbert, 5th BW vice commander.
 
"Our Air Force Global Strike Command mission is to deter those who would do us ill and assure our allies--our expeditionary bomb squadron and associated maintainers did that mission while deployed in the U.S. Pacific Command theater by contributing to stability and security in the region during a period of heightened tensions."