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VMFA(AW)-242 and MALS-11 return from year long UDP

Marine Corps News

Release Date: 9/22/2003

Story by Sgt. Richard J. Kulleck

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR, Calif.(Sept. 19, 2003) -- Marines and Sailors of Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 242 "Bats" and Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 11 returned here Sept. 15, to a long-over-due welcome home.

"It has been getting frustrating. They were suppose to come home in March and then they didn't know, but now we are just patiently waiting for them to land today," said Karrie L. Anton, wife of Staff Sgt. Chris A. Anton, MALS-11 aviation ordnance technician, before the commercial airliner touched down.

The two units left earlier then scheduled during the month of September 2002, anticipated being gone for the standard six-month unit deployment program rotation to Iwakuni, Japan.

When the war in Iraq started, VMFA 242 and MALS-11 training schedules grew. The training manifest placed them in different parts of the world.

"I understood there was a job that needed to be done. Training for so long to do your job during an actual war and not being able to was hard," said Sgt. Anthony P. Nelson, aviation powerline, VMFA (AW) 242, who wasn't forward deployed, "but we realized that someone had to be in the area of responsibility."

While deployed, the units had a separate mission from their brothers-in-arms fighting in the Iraqi desert. The units conducted solo and joint training exercises in10 different countries, mostly in the Pacific Rim. Joint exercises included Southern Frontier, a combined exercise with the Royal Australian Air Force and Exercise Foal Eagle, with the U.S. Air Force and the South Korean Air Force.

Relief could be seen on faces all around as the Marines and Sailors returned home to open arms,. Reunion was a long time coming for the families whose loved ones returned home safely.

Cpl. Robert T. Jones VMFA (AW) 242 aviation ordnance technician stated, "It is hard to live out of a back pack for a year, but it is good to be home."