Guard back home after 'amazing accomplishment'

SOUTH BURLINGTON - The roar of jet engines and excited yells from family members heralded the arrival home Wednesday of Vermont Air National Guard pilots from a combat mission in the Middle East.

"There's Daddy!" a woman said as the first of nine F-16 fighter jets landed at the Guard base at Burlington International Airport, marking the end of three months overseas and the culmination of a two-day trip back to Vermont.

The pilots were the vanguard of 300 Vermont-based airmen to return home from battle against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Most of the remaining Guard members are due back to the Green Mountain State on Thursday.

Guard F-16 pilots attacked Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, with precision-guided bombs and 20 mm cannon. The rest of the airmen worked in support roles, such as maintenance, munitions and intelligence, Guard commanders said after the planes alighted at about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"They flew over a year's worth of hours in just over two months. That was around-the-clock operations," said Col. Patrick Guinee, commander of the 158th Fighter Wing. "We are all just incredibly proud of each and every one of them. It's an amazing accomplishment what just took place."

Jet noise signaled the Guard members' homecoming to anybody within listening distance. People took to social media to greet the airmen. "Opened the window to hear the jets as they arrive," tweeted David Rosowsky, provost of the University of Vermont. "We are excited to welcome our F-16s and VT Air Nat'l Guard members home."

The planes flew over the airport in a side-by-side formation before banking east over the Green Mountains, circling around and landing. A phalanx of family members, escorted by Guard officials and kept at a distance from reporters, emerged from a building to watch and cheer. Some of the youngsters carried signs — "Welcome home daddy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!" read one — and wore T-shirts with words of welcome.

Pilots wearing khaki-colored flight suits clambered from their single-seat planes after ground crews directed them into their hangars, which had sat empty since December. The pilots left their base, identified by the Pentagon as in Qatar, on Monday, then paused in Europe to sleep and to refuel their F-16s. They made the eight-hour flight Wednesday over the Atlantic Ocean and back to Vermont.

They received embraces, handshakes and pats on the back from loved ones, colleagues and commanders as soon as their feet touched the ground.

"They all volunteered to do this mission," said Maj. Gen. Steven Cray, adjutant general of the Vermont National Guard. "It's an incredible testament to the men and women that we have serving in today's National Guard for what they do for this country and our state."

F-16 pilot Capt. Cash Shaner described the mission as 24/7 with no days off for the entire deployment.

"It's definitely a grind, a lot of hard work, but we think we did a good job over there," said Shaner, who took part in his first combat deployment. "We always said we were ready to go do this, and we got a chance to go prove it, and I think we executed very well."

The captain said he was most proud that the Guard was able to execute the mission in the F-16, which will be gone in a couple of years when the Vermont unit receives new F-35 jets. Shaner said the F-16s performed "amazingly" despite being, on average, about 30 years old. Some of the planes, he said, flew two missions in the same day — with different pilots. He gave credit to "some of the most skilled maintainers in the Air Force today."

The military gave the Vermont Guard an unusually short 30 days notice before the 300 airmen and F-16 squadron were deployed Dec. 7. Preparation for a mission like this one usually takes the better part of a year, according to the Guard.

Part of the mission included a campaign to liberate the northern Iraq city of Mosul, which the IS group seized in 2014. Pilots with the South Burlington-based 158th Fighter Wing "provided air-to-ground attacks" in support of Iraqi army troops who led the battle in the city.

While the Vermonters took part, military operations drove the fundamentalist fighters from the eastern part of Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, with a population of more than 1 million residents. This week, Iraq and coalition forces began the fight to capture the western side from the militants.

None of the Vermonters ran into trouble, said Guinee, the fighter wing commander.

"There were no injuries, no issues," he said Wednesday. "It really was, by all accounts, just a flawless performance by the team while they were in theater."

Shaner declined to say directly whether he came under fire, but he noted the region is dangerous.

"There's a pretty brutal war that's going on," he said. "There are a lot of bullets flying in Iraq and Syria right now, and we did see that for sure."

Vermonters have been involved in battles for Mosul since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. Two soldiers with Vermont ties have been killed there.

Contact Adam Silverman at 802-660-1854 or asilverman@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @wej12.