60 Florida National Guardsmen back home

60 Guard Members Home From Iraq
Air Operations Battalion Received Honors, Did Not Suffer Single Casualty

POSTED: Sunday, May 9, 2010
UPDATED: 1:12 pm EDT May 9, 2010

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- About 60 members of a Florida National Guard unit were welcomed home Saturday from a year-long deployment in Iraq.

After a year of guiding flights of personnel and equipment overseas, the 111th Air Operations Battalion nicknamed the Overseers landed on a much friendlier runway at Cecil Commerce Center to be greeted by a crowd of family and friends.

A C-130 ferried the soldiers to an open hangar where the returning guardsmen and women were greeted with cheers as they stepped off the plane and were congratulated by Florida National Guard leadership for a job well done.

"We had no injuries and we brought everybody home safely," said Col. William Thurmond. "We're looking forward to our next mission."

While deployed, the battalian operated four facilities in Kuwait and Iraq. Officials said the unit provided air traffic control services for more than 65,000 takeoffs and landings in the Iraq theater.
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