Nellis rescue group returns from duty in Afghanistan

Eric Leake

Monday, May 2, 2005 | 10:45 a.m.

Members of the 563rd Rescue Group returned Sunday to Nellis Air Force Base and a world months older than the one they left.

Greeting 1st Lt. Michael Erdley at the hangar were his wife, son, and two daughters, one 9 months old.

"She's crawling. She wasn't crawling before," Erdley said as he held the child. "She was a newborn when I left."

His 2-year-old son recognized and ran straight to him. It can be hard, Erdley said, to return to children who may not remember Dad.

"It's heartbreaking, but all you can do is assume your role, be a visitor in the house for a while," Erdley said.

He is returning to a new home that he has only seen in pictures. With his family around him, he said this homecoming was different.

"This was great. This was the first time I've ever seen this. Usually we come home in the middle of the night and I walk in the door," Erdley said. "This is good."

Sixteen members of the 563rd Rescue Group -- comprising the 66th Rescue, 58th Rescue, and 763rd Maintenance squadrons -- returned Sunday evening after about four months in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Approximately 34 more members of the group are scheduled to return on two flights to the base today.

About 580 Nellis personnel are currently deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other areas of the Middle East.

Capt. Doug Midyett was at the hangar to greet the returning personnel. He said the group has been busy the last two years with recurring deployments ranging three to five months.

He said the group should have about a year off before it is redeployed. He said they will have a few weeks off and then begin training again this summer.

Midyett said the 66th Rescue Squadron was last week named Air Force rescue squadron of the year. He talked about some of their missions in Afghanistan.

"The best thing they've been doing is winning the hearts and minds," he said, adding that they have safely delivered women going into labor and child land mine victims from remote regions to hospitals.

"It's just very rewarding to bring a kid back to the hospital who otherwise would not have lived," Midyett said.

Midyett's wife, Jo, painted children's faces with flags and stars and blew up balloons as she and the families waited.

"I think every homecoming should be like a ticker tape parade," she said.

She is a veteran of numerous deployments and recalled her husband's homecomings.

"It's just like a million pounds have been lifted off your shoulders, a huge burden. Seeing them there alive and safe is unbelievable," she said.

She attended Sunday, she said, for support because it is hard being a military spouse.

Kimberly Stevens, 20, waited for her fiance's return and said she had already learned one military spouse skill -- how not to worry.

"You can't let yourself," she said. "You'd be a nervous wreck."

Stevens said it is of course difficult to see a loved one off, but something a military family must get used to.

"It's the way it's going to be for the rest of our lives," she said.

Stacey Koester and her three teenaged children waited for her husband's return.

"It doesn't get easy," she said. "But you know what he's doing is something that he loves and it's his job."

Family and friends watched the C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane land on the Nellis tarmac. They watched the bus ferrying the personnel to the hangar.

Some tried to walk towards the men getting off the bus, but as they recognized husbands and fathers they ran.

Senior Master Sgt. Paul Koester gave each each of his children and then his wife a long hug.

He said the flight home is always the longest because he always wants to be home sooner. Then, he said, he has to catch up and readjust.

"It always takes a couple weeks to get used to civilization and your family," Koester said. "Everybody's gone on and grown and changed."

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