Thunderbolts Return From Missions In Iraq

Beaufort (SC) Gazette | May 13, 2003 | Michael Kerr

[Stand Watch Listen]

Maj. Matt Tolliver was barely out of his jet before his 3-year-old-son, Jacob, started peppering him with questions about the aircraft.

Beaming with pride, Jacob wanted to know what every piece of equipment aboard his dad's F/A-18 Hornet was.

Tolliver answered his son's questions with a smile that seemed to say "It's good to be home."

After three months flying bombing missions over Baghdad and other parts of Iraq from a base in the Kuwaiti desert, Tolliver and nine other pilots from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 251, better known as the Thunderbolts, returned Monday to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

For family members, loved ones and the pilots themselves, it was a welcomed homecoming for part of a squadron that has spent more time deployed than at home over the past year-and-a-half.

"It's just great to be here," Lt. Col. Tom Clark said, surrounded by his wife, son and daughter. "It's great to see everybody."

Clark, the squadron's commanding officer, said he had nothing planned but to spend time with his family.

"I'm just going to spend some time away from the heat and away from the sand," he said.

The homecoming wasn't a first for Clark, who has been deployed seven times.

Within weeks of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with the nation still reeling, the Thunderbolts deployed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Returning from Afghanistan in March 2002, the Thunderbolts were home for less than a year when Operation Iraqi Freedom called them back to duty in February.

But at noon Monday, the sky above Beaufort came alive as 10 Hornets soared in formation over the air station. On the ground below, about 50 friends and family members cheered and waved flags.

"I feel really great," Clark's 10-year-old son, Thomas, said. "I missed him a lot."

Clark's daughter, Caroline, 14, said she just wanted to spend time talking with her dad.

"It was just a big rush to see his plane fly over us and know it was his," she said.

Along with the inquisitive Jacob, Tolliver was also greeted by his wife Lorraine and two other kids, Alex, 7, and Mateo, 1.

"(Coming home) just gets better and better the longer we've been married," Tolliver said. "It's really exciting to come home. It's so nice to be here."

For a wife left behind, no two deployments are alike, Lorraine Tolliver said.

"This one was different because we did not know when they were coming home," she said. "It was actually shorter than we expected. It was kind of like déj`a vu watching him get out of the plane because we had done this so recently."

Support from other wives and the Beaufort community are extremely important during a deployment, Lorraine Tolliver said.

"The support here has been really great," she said, her eyes welling up with tears. "That's how we get through it."

As the wife of the squadron's commanding officer, Amy Clark has a great deal of responsibility keeping morale up among the wives while their husbands are overseas. But, she said, she couldn't do it alone.

"I have a lot of help from the other wives and from the key volunteers," she said. "The community has been great. Our church has pitched in and helped us. We've just had a lot of support."

Clark agreed that this deployment was different than those before, including Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Desert Storm.

"This one was a lot shorter, but it's also a lot more challenging not knowing where he is or what he's doing," she said.

About 150 more Thunderbolts are due back in Beaufort today. Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 115, the Silver Eagles, are due to return from a deployment aboard the USS Harry S. Truman by the end of the month and Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122, the Crusaders, are due home by the end of the summer. The Crusaders have been stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, since last July and originally were scheduled to return in January.

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