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Commentary: Bats appreciate the Mighty Marauders

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. John D. Rye
  • 43rd Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron commander
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  As the 43rd EECS relocates from its long-time home at the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing to another base in the U.S. Central Command, I'm experiencing the same excited feeling I think I would get before participating in the Running of the Bulls, or maybe a rugby match--mostly because I'm not fast and I don't play rugby, but also because we've had it pretty good here at the 386th.

The first letter I got from home was a message from my wife with an Eisenhower quote from D-day: "The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and dreams of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you."

The386th AEW Mighty Marauders have always marched with us--and without them, we would not have marched at all. As the longest-deployed squadron in the AOR, we have been lucky to be a part of this wing.

I won't tell you I will miss the early Saturday morning FOD walks, but I will surely miss the conversations. I can't tell you I will miss the food at the D-Fac, but I sure will miss the nod and 'Good morning, sir' greeting from my personal omelet-making chef. I won't miss yoga or ab-ripper, but I will miss the people and the annex set-up.

I probably should have talked to more folks and ventured out more than I did, to express in the larger forum to other squadrons on The Rock how important each one of them is. As the 43rd EECS packs up our Bats after 6 ½ of parking on your ramp, eating your food, using your Dawgnet, pool and gym equipment, I want to be sure to mention that we appreciate you.

When I say "you," you might think of the wing commander or the command chief, maybe the group CC. Yes, of course we appreciate them because they watched out for us and made sure we had all the required stuff we needed to do our mission.

But I really mean you. The one who serves us when we walk into the D-Fac. The one who handles our problems when we don't understand the process in your office. The one who fixes our aircraft. The one who drives us back and forth. The one who makes popcorn at night, right when we get up. The one who gets us the key to the annex. The one who provides us weather reports, files our flight plan and works to secure our clearances. And especially the flight-med folks (I thought I already got my Flu shot).
No matter who you are, or who you think you are, you are definitely the one (or the replacement of the one) who helped us accomplish so much in Operation Iraqi Freedom. So much, in fact, that they no longer require our services here.

As we forward-deploy, and as Operation New Dawn takes shape, we will always have the memories and a true appreciation of you being here for us.