Mission Complete

When our unit received notification of a pending deployment, the stated goals within the unit were; #1 Everyone comes home and #2 We all remain friends when the rotation ends.  A decade of deployments had proven that would be a lofty goal...especially for a group of "Type-A" personalities.

On 09 October, a crew departed Djibouti on 6-day trip to ferry an airplane back to Tennessee for maintenance...the trip included stops in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (OEJN); Amman, Jordan (OJAM); Souda Bay, Greece (LGSA); Brindisi, Italy (LIBR); Wiesbaden, Germany (ETOU); Prestwick, Scotland (EGPK); Keflavík, Iceland (BIKF); Kangerlussuaq Sondrestrom Intl Airport, Greenland (BGSF); Goose Bay, Canada (CYYR);  and Burlington, Vermont (KBTV).

The remainder of the unit stayed behind in Djibouti to complete the hand-off with the replacement unit from Vermont.  DET 25 departed Africa on 13 OCT aboard a commercial flight to rally with the ferry crew at Ft. Benning, Georgia.  As you can see below, the unit was reunited on 16 October for dinner in the United States.

After completing 3-days of demobilization, we departed Ft. Benning in a van heading north...only to arrive at home station after 11 PM in the rain.  It has been described as the most uninspired homecoming ever...just the way I like it.

In summary, our deployment lasted just under a year (50 weeks).  We flew over 1,150 flight hours on two aircraft with all six pilots logging over 400 flight hours.  We successfully conducted missions into 10 eastern African countries in the "Horn Of Africa".  More importantly...everyone came home and professionalism ruled the day...Mission Accomplished!