Posted on 05/12/2006 7:27:27 PM PDT by SandRat
FORT HUACHUCA — Soldiers of the 69th Signal Company returned home after nearly a year in Iraq where they put in a number of communication infrastructures.
The 142 men and women of the unit — most of whom are cable dogs, individuals who install communication lines — stepped off the charter aircraft at 8 p.m. Thursday, concluding a trip from Kuwait to Arizona. Waiting for the ramp to be put up to the plane, soldiers of the 11th Signal Brigade, to which the 69th belongs, were as anxious to see their fellow soldiers get off the commercial airliner as probably those inside the aircraft were to get off the huge bird.
“It’s always a great day when the troops come home,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Donald Manley, the brigade’s senior noncommissioned officer.
Soon the door opened. As the soldiers left the plane, they were greeted by Manley and others who were at the bottom of the ramp.
On May 16, 2005, the soldiers boarded an airplane for Kuwait, where they would do some training before heading for Iraq.
Like the flight over that had been delayed due to mechanical problems, the departure from Kuwait back to Fort Huachuca also was behind schedule because of mechanical problems. The plane was initially supposed to arrive at the fort at 7 a.m. Thursday.
The 69th arrived in Iraq in June 2005. The unit was split up and sent to six locations throughout the country.
During their nearly yearlong deployment the soldiers installed nearly 2 million feet of fiber and copper cables to provide secured and unsecured communication lines for both inside and outside plant projects. The work, which used 1,928,541 feet of wire, included:
*A fiber backbone ring at Tallil.
*Infrastructure and commercialization upgrades at Forward Operating Base Endurance.
*Wiring 83 buildings at Balad Air Base.
*Networks at a complex of military installations near the Baghdad International Airport, to include Camp Slayer and Victory Base. At the latter the soldiers helped install communications for a new detainee facility to replace the Abu Ghraib prison.
*Working with the 2nd and 3rd Marine Air Wings at Al Asad in a commercialization project to bring that installation’s fiber ring on line.
*Wire the Iraqi Tribunal Court House in the International Zone in preparation for the trial of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Additionally, soldiers of the unit upgraded communications at the U.S. embassy complex in the zone.
HERALD/REVIEW senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615.
Sgt. Tonya Jackson is greeted by Staff Sgt. Sileon Chan as she and 141 other members of the 69th Signal Company return from Iraq to Libby Army Airfield on Fort Huachuca on Thursday evening. Look for more coverage of the homecoming in Saturday's edition.
I am in Tucson right now - and this got a lot of good local coverage on the news programs - so I guess not everyone in Tucson is a raving liberal.
Tho you could not tell that from the local papers - glad I left years ago.
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