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FORT HOOD AIRMEN RETURNING FROM MIDDLE EAST MISSIONS

III Corps and Fort Hood News Release

Release Date: 6/12/2003

Soldiers aren't the only personnel beginning to return to Fort Hood from battlefield deployments to the Middle East.

Airmen of the 712th Air Support Operations Squadron have been trickling back since late April, according to Tech. Sgt. Robert Butler, acting squadron superintendent. Fifty-seven airmen returned between April 27 and June 11, he said. Sixty-eight of the unit's 100 airmen deployed earlier this year.

The unit deployed three groups of airmen to the U.S. Central Command area of operations to coordinate Air Force tactical air support for Army units going into Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Butler said, with the first group leaving in mid-February for a classified location. Two other groups left for Kuwait around April 8.

"We provide battlefield communications; we help the Army put bombs on target," Butler said. "We also provide battlefield satellite communications."

"The people who have returned say the mission was a success," Butler said.

The rest of the squadron's airmen are expected to return shortly, but none of the unit's equipment has returned to Fort Hood yet, Butler said.