News

Family, friends welcome Reserve Airmen home from Afghanistan

  • Published
  • By Sandra Pishner
  • 446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
MCCHORD FIELD, Wash. --  Of about 60 deployed Reservists from the 86th Aerial Port Squadron, 13 returned to McChord Field Feb. 28. A few others returned earlier in the week; yet more will arrive next week. After six months at various locations in Southwest Asia, the Reserve aerial porters return with more experience and more stories to tell of their service before self.

With about half the squadron located at Kandahar, Afghanistan, the Reservists supported a mission of moving passengers and cargo where ever and when ever needed.

"We peaked in December," said Senior Master Sgt. Marshall Stokoe. "We moved a lot of cargo in December; just phenomenal numbers."

By the end of December 2012, the group had already managed to support the movement of more than 100,000 passengers and nearly 70,000 pounds of cargo on almost 7,500 missions. This deployment had a mixture of both new and experienced Reservists who worked at a busy Kandahar, terminal.

"Our workload was significant. It was a lot more than what, as Reservists, we're used to. You don't get that kind of training on annual tour," said Stokoe, who works as a network engineer at a law firm in Soap Lake, Wash. "For the most part, all of us were really prepared and we were ready to work."

Work consisted of six days on duty to one day off each week. That one day off, for at least two of the 86th APS Airmen, was date night.

Tech. Sgt. Whitney and Staff Sgt. David Strong deployed together to Kandahar, although they worked in different sections.

"For our date night, we'd go into the chow hall and into the MWR to watch a movie. It was all we had to look forward to throughout the week. It was really cool," said the wife in this Reserve duo. The Strongs are from Missoula, Mont.

Here or there, Stokoe believes there's no better group of Reserve aerial porters.

"It was great to see these guys work, they were phenomenal folks," said Stokoe, the senior NCO of the 60 who deployed. "I really appreciated everything they did."

Maj. Tony Edwards, 86th APS commander, was among family and friends who gathered at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Feb. 28 to welcome this group home.

"I'm proud they were able to directly support the war fighters by bringing them the equipment and supplies they needed as well as moving them where they needed to be,"
said Edwards. "It's good to have (the Airmen) home after a long, hard six months of continuous labor so they can be with their friends and families again."

(Airman 1st Class Madelyn McCullough contributed to this story)