thedrifter
12-21-06, 06:46 AM
Marines ready for deployment
Thursday, December 21, 2006
By JEANETTE DeFORGE
jdeforge@repub.com
CHICOPEE - When Marine Reserve Cpl. Jon A. Bahre learned he was being called to active duty for a mission to Africa, he put plans to open a business on hold - and then there was the matter of his wedding.
He was planning to marry Meaghan Walsh this summer, but since he has been called to active duty with Marine Air Support Squadron Six, that date has been changed.
"We are going to get married the 29th of this month. I've been with her since I got back from Iraq," said Bahre, of Holyoke.
But the early wedding and the delayed honeymoon don't seem to bother Bahre or his fiancee.
"She is perfect," he said.
An about 50-person platoon in the squadron based at Westover Air Reserve Base will be leaving for Camp Lejeune in North Carolina for training and then will head to Djibouti, located in the Horn of Africa, for a seven-month mission, said Lt. Col. Michael J. Flynn, commander of the group.
The squadron, which is partly located in California, is trained to communicate with ground troops and send aircraft to support their mission. Planes may be dispatched to bomb a strategic location or offer reconnaissance, he said.
The activation will send the troops to an airfield built in the small country in 2002 as part of the war on terror, Flynn said. It will be providing security to the airfield.
The platoon is a mix of active-duty members and reservists who have been called to full-time duty. About 30 percent of those leaving from Westover also spent a year in Iraq in 2004-2005, said Capt. Timothy V. Matthews, of Westfield, the platoon commander.
Matthews, an eighth-grade social studies teacher in Newton, said the reservists have heard no complaints from employers, and families that have already gone through one activation are helping those facing it for the first time.
"Because it is a different mission, a lot of Marines are finding it interesting," he said.
Matthews and Bahre and several others served in Iraq and are happy to be working together again. "I already know I have my go-to guys," Matthews said.
The mission is the first for recruits Lance Cpl. Brian P. Byrne, of Enfield, who joined the Marines in August 2005, and Pfc. Stefan C. Ayotte, of Feeding Hills, who joined a year ago. Both are college students.
"I'm excited. I just got back from air school," Ayotte said, explaining he was trained as an aviation service operator.
His family is concerned about him going overseas, but is happy he will not be in Iraq, he said.
For Byrne, the activation is bittersweet because he will miss family and friends and has to put college on hold.
"I'm looking forward to it in a way. I haven't been deployed yet," he said. "It is a different mission. It is interesting going there."
Ellie
Thursday, December 21, 2006
By JEANETTE DeFORGE
jdeforge@repub.com
CHICOPEE - When Marine Reserve Cpl. Jon A. Bahre learned he was being called to active duty for a mission to Africa, he put plans to open a business on hold - and then there was the matter of his wedding.
He was planning to marry Meaghan Walsh this summer, but since he has been called to active duty with Marine Air Support Squadron Six, that date has been changed.
"We are going to get married the 29th of this month. I've been with her since I got back from Iraq," said Bahre, of Holyoke.
But the early wedding and the delayed honeymoon don't seem to bother Bahre or his fiancee.
"She is perfect," he said.
An about 50-person platoon in the squadron based at Westover Air Reserve Base will be leaving for Camp Lejeune in North Carolina for training and then will head to Djibouti, located in the Horn of Africa, for a seven-month mission, said Lt. Col. Michael J. Flynn, commander of the group.
The squadron, which is partly located in California, is trained to communicate with ground troops and send aircraft to support their mission. Planes may be dispatched to bomb a strategic location or offer reconnaissance, he said.
The activation will send the troops to an airfield built in the small country in 2002 as part of the war on terror, Flynn said. It will be providing security to the airfield.
The platoon is a mix of active-duty members and reservists who have been called to full-time duty. About 30 percent of those leaving from Westover also spent a year in Iraq in 2004-2005, said Capt. Timothy V. Matthews, of Westfield, the platoon commander.
Matthews, an eighth-grade social studies teacher in Newton, said the reservists have heard no complaints from employers, and families that have already gone through one activation are helping those facing it for the first time.
"Because it is a different mission, a lot of Marines are finding it interesting," he said.
Matthews and Bahre and several others served in Iraq and are happy to be working together again. "I already know I have my go-to guys," Matthews said.
The mission is the first for recruits Lance Cpl. Brian P. Byrne, of Enfield, who joined the Marines in August 2005, and Pfc. Stefan C. Ayotte, of Feeding Hills, who joined a year ago. Both are college students.
"I'm excited. I just got back from air school," Ayotte said, explaining he was trained as an aviation service operator.
His family is concerned about him going overseas, but is happy he will not be in Iraq, he said.
For Byrne, the activation is bittersweet because he will miss family and friends and has to put college on hold.
"I'm looking forward to it in a way. I haven't been deployed yet," he said. "It is a different mission. It is interesting going there."
Ellie