Nellis airmen return home after six months in Iraq, Afghanistan

By Jeff Pope

Monday, April 6, 2009 | 8:07 p.m.

Master Sgt. Reid Fussell just finished his fifth tour of duty, splitting six months between Iraq and Afghanistan. After a little rest and relaxation with his family in Las Vegas, where is he off to next?

“We’re going to Disneyland,” he said.

Fussell is among the 290 airmen of the 820th RED HORSE Squadron that returned to Nellis Air Force Base today. They walked across the flight line with their signature red hats in hand to a mob of hundreds of family and friends waiting to greet them. Including a month of training in Wisconsin, the airmen had been away from their families for seven months.

Standing outside the terminal, Sgt. Jordan Bunting held his 3-month-old son Christopher for the first time.

“He’s beautiful,” Bunting said. “I’m very excited. I’m just looking forward to spending time with him.”

RED HORSE — short for Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers — is the Air Force’s mobile civil engineering response group. It performs heavy repairs on Air Force installations, utilities and operational buildings and supports construction activities when normal base engineer capabilities and Army engineer support is not available.

The squadron’s commander, Col. Wilford Cassidy, said it was great to see all the people who turned out for the homecoming. He members of the squadron did a lot of important work in both countries and every one returned home safely.

While in Iraq, the squadron renovated a new headquarters for U.S. personnel moving out of Baghdad. In January, the U.S. forces handed over responsibility to Iraqi troops for the Green Zone, the fortified central section of the city.

In Afghanistan, the engineers finished much of the preparation work for incoming Army troops and Marines.

“We did a lot of work at a couple of the small forward operating bases where the planes and helicopters will be based out of,” Cassidy said.

Back home, families prepared celebrations, both large and private, for the returning airmen.

Matthew Applebury, 6, and his sister Alexa, 3, held handmade signs to welcome home their father, Tech Sgt. Spencer Applebury.

Applebury was returning from his third deployment, something his wife, Tech Sgt. Venus Applebury, knows all about. Both are stationed at Nellis.

“It’s easier because I know what he’s going through but harder because they have expectations of me, too, and we have two kids,” she said. “We’re ready for him to be home.”

Among those waiting at Nellis were employees of the Silverton. The casino-lodge sponsored more than 100 members of the squadron through the Adopt an Airman program.

The Silverton hosted a party before the airmen deployed and plan to host another one in May for all members of RED HORSE and their families, said company President Craig Cavileer, an honorary commander of the squadron.

Silverton employees sent care packages and e-mails to the airmen while they were overseas. The company provided them with tickets to sporting and concert events while they were in Las Vegas.

“The other thing we do is going off-base and talking up what a support system Nellis is for, not only the whole country, but also for Vegas itself,” Cavileer said. “They’re a part of the Las Vegas community here.”