Last deployment rotation comes home Published Jan. 22, 2014 By Tech. Sgt. Mark R. W. Orders-Woempner 434th ARW Public Affairs GRISSOM AIR RESERVE BASE, Ind. -- As the wheels of the Spirit of Indiana touched down on U.S soil for the first time in more than two months, the KC-135R Stratotanker brought home with it Hoosier Airmen and the end of a long deployment cycle. Ending that cycle, which began in May 2013, 20 Airmen from the 434th Air Refueling Wing returned to Grissom Jan. 20 after four months at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. Col. Paul Weimer, 434th Maintenance Group commander, was the first to shake hands with each of the Airmen as they stepped off the aircraft and headed to a redeployment line before reuniting with their families and friends. "All of them seemed to have a great spirit," said Weimer, who added he was proud of the job they did overseas. Tech. Sgt. Brian Baumfalk, 434th Maintenance Squadron crew chief, who was one of the returning deployers, was one such example. "I tried to stay positive the whole time, and it made me better," said Baumfalk. "It was a good deployment." Weimer agreed with that assessment and said that after talking to the returning Airmen, several conferred to him they had a great time while accomplishing a lot. During their deployment cycle, which spanned four air expeditionary force, or AEF, periods, 138 Airmen from the Hoosier Wing supported air refueling operations that encompassed more than 2,362 hours flown on 395 sorties that refueled 306 receivers with more than 6.8 million pounds of jet fuel. Nearly 2,085 of those flight hours were considered combat hours. For several of the returning Airmen, this deployment was their first and provided unique experiences. "This was my first deployment, and I got a lot of experience working on a lot of different aircraft, which was great," said Senior Airman Christopher Robinson, 434th MXS aircraft structural maintenance specialist. For the families and friends gathered, the great part was having their loved ones back home, many of whom had missed the holidays and other special events while away. Perhaps no one missed out on more than Senior Airman Chad James, 434th Maintenance Squadron aerospace ground equipment specialist, whose second son Oakley was born in November while he was deployed. James and his wife, Kaylee, planned on using mobile video messaging for him to be in the delivery room when Oakley was born; however, an Internet outage at the deployed location prevented him from seeing his newborn until an hour-and-a-half after the birth. Despite not being there, James said it was still special to share that moment, and even more profound when he saw his new son for the first time. "I thought it would be the same feeling as when I saw him online, but when I saw him in person for the first time, it was a reality check that I'm the dad of two boys now," he explained. "I'm so proud of how well my wife did while I was gone - She was amazing." One of the most vocally excited family members was 5-year-old Addison Karagias, daughter of Capt. Theodore Karagias, 434th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron maintenance officer. "I'm super-duper excited; more than everybody's names in the whole entire world," exclaimed Addison. "My nana brought me an elf, and she's still here for Daddy's (Christmas) day. "When he sleeps, Santa is going to come, but only for Daddy," she continued. Karagias deployed before the holidays, and so his family has been waiting for him to come home to celebrate his Christmas. "We're going to re-celebrate Christmas," explained the captain's wife, Alexis. "We celebrated without him, but we still have our tree up, all of his presents are still under it so we can celebrate with him." Before leaving with his family to celebrate, Karagias reflected on his time away during the holidays. "It's funny, because I think back to eating Thanksgiving dinner with all my guys back there, and it seems like so long ago, and yet it really wasn't," he recalled. "Time went by really fast, but really slow at the same time." Despite all the excitement in the air, Karagias expressed a sentiment felt by many of the returning Airmen. "I just can't wait to go rest a little," he concluded. While this was the last leg of a major AEF deployment, there are still close to 30 Grissom Airmen currently deployed throughout the world. The 434th ARW is the largest KC-135R unit in the Air Force Reserve Command. Airmen and aircraft from the 434th ARW routinely deploy around the globe in support of the Air Force mission and U.S. strategic objectives. Say connected with Grissom and the 434th ARW on Facebook and Twitter.
