Nellis-based squadron is back from the war

Jace Radke

Thursday, March 4, 2004 | 10:56 a.m.

Twelve-year-old Hope Pomeroy bounced up and down in a parking lot near the Nellis Air Force Base runways Wednesday trying to find her father through a crowd of camouflage-clad airmen who had just spent five months in the Middle East.

"Where's my daddy?" Hope asked as about 150 airmen, including Hope's father and other members of the 820th Red Horse Civil Engineering Squadron as well as a group of 99th Civil Engineering Squadron members walked briskly toward waiting family members and friends.

Tech. Sgt. Donald Pomeroy spotted his little girl and his wife Mary and had tears in his eyes as he hugged both closely to him.

"I'm dang glad to be back," Pomeroy said as he met the newest addition to his family, a Pomeranian named Roxie. "It was a hard plane ride to sit through because I just wanted to get here and be with my family.

"We hit Utah, and we knew we were almost here, but that last hour was tough."

The airmen flew home from Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar on a commercial 767 that landed at Nellis about 11:15 a.m.

For Pomeroy, he hoped it was the last time he would make this kind of return flight.

"I'm retiring in September, so I wanted to put in a last hitch and go out with a bang," said Pomeroy, who has been with the Air Force for 20 years and plans to retire to Maine.

For others a new deployment could only be two months away when members of the Nellis-based 820th, a heavy construction unit, are scheduled to head to Ecuador on a humanitarian mission to drill wells and build a school.

Senior Airman Justin Andres said he planned on enjoying what time he has with his family even if it's a short as two months.

"We know that we're going to be needed over there again and again, but right now it just feels great to be back even though my son doesn't recognize me anymore," Andres said.

Andres' 10-month-old son Jordan started crying when his father picked him up for a hug after getting off the plane.

"Right now I'm going to go home and get to know my son again," Andres said.

When the 820th left Nellis on Oct. 3, Andres learned that his wife, Mallory was pregnant with the couple's second child, a girl.

"It was definitely tough having him away trying to take care of Jordan who is teething and being pregnant," Mallory said. "He (Justin) has missed a lot. He missed Jordan walking and talking, but we're all going to enjoy getting to know each other again."

Although Justin Andres and about 130 other Red Horse members were deployed to Qatar, a country bordered by the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia, southeast of Iraq, they also spent time in six other Middle Eastern countries during their deployment.

But Lt. Col. Tom Quasney, commanding officer of the airmen sent to Qatar, said information about which six other countries they were in and what they did there remains classified.

The unit, about a third of the entire Red Horse Squadron stationed at Nellis, completed $8 million in construction work at Al Udeid Air Base, including the construction of eight buildings, three roads and a utility project.

Another of the Air Force's three Red Horse Squadrons sent airmen to replace the departing members of the 820th, officials said.

Wednesday marked the second time the 820th has returned from the Middle East after a stint of support for the war on terrorism. In 2002 the unit spent about six months in Afghanistan where the mobile civil engineers built the infrastructure for a military airport, including hangars and a one- million-square-foot aircraft parking apron.

The squadron built $26 million in infrastructure, and the work allowed U.S. Air Force planes to provide better support during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. More than 200 Red Horse members received medals for their work in Afghanistan.

As his wife Sarah inspected the tan line on the back of his neck, Senior Airman Brandon Six said that the squadron is single-minded when it is deployed,

"We go over there to get a job done and then get home as fast as we can," Six said.

Six and his wife said they planned to spend the weekend together at a Las Vegas resort, but first they planned on getting some food.

"I need some real food," Six said. "We'll probably go get some Memphis barbecue tonight."com

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