Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Felix Fimbres | Second Lt. Bret A. Gibbons, commander of the 163rd, unfurls his company's flag at the...... read more read more
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IRVINE, Calif. – Forty-five soldiers from the 163rd Ordnance Company were welcomed home by friends, family, and fellow soldiers here on Saturday after completing their nine-month support mission in Camp Buerhring, Kuwait.
“Every solider volunteered to go on the deployment which speaks to the quality of character of my soldiers,” said 2nd Lt. Bret A. Gibbons, commander of the 163rd. “As Army Reserve soldiers they left jobs, family, and friends. They put their lives on hold.”
Gibbons said his unit was responsible for issuing, receiving, configuring and shipping of ammunition in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
“It was a good but challenging deployment,” said Gibbons, “The mission went very well because I had an outstanding set of soldiers that made my job easy and my mechanics are my heroes. My ammunition specialists can’t do their jobs without vehicles like forklifts and loaders. Our unit’s mechanics maintained those vehicles and they worked miracles to keep everything running.”
Sgt. Adam S. Candia, one of the five mechanics for the 163rd, said that whenever vehicles went down his team was able to get them up and running that same day.
“It was hot and we didn’t always have the parts we needed but we had great teamwork and just got it done,” said Candia. Now that he’s back Candia will be pursuing a business administration degree at Oxnard Community College in the fall.
“We just came together really well, we brainstormed and used everyone’s past experiences to get everything fixed,” said Sgt. Rafael Rodriguez who is a mechanic for the 163rd and a military technician with the Army Reserve in Los Alamitos, Calif.
The soldiers of the 163rd have more than memories to bring back with them; many of them have forged bonds that go beyond friendships. Rodriquez said that he’s been with the unit since 2007 but only seeing his fellow soldiers a couple days a month made it difficult to really get to know one another but this deployment changed all that.
“We spent all day working together, we went to the gym together, we ate together, we hung out together, and we helped each other out with issues we were having back home. We built actual relationships with each other,” said Rodriquez.
Spc. Saul Moral, an ammunitions specialist and full-time student at Santa Monica College studying business administration, echoed that statement.
“I got to see a lot of good leadership but I made a lot of brothers. I grew up with a lot of family around me so not having them near was the hardest part of this deployment but I would do it again in a heartbeat because I grew up a lot as a solider,” said Moral, “Now that we’re back I just want to say welcome home to the rest of the soldiers of the 163rd. We made it.”
The returning soldiers were greeted by a small group of representatives from the 311th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) at Los Angeles International Airport before being bussed to the units home here in Irvine, California where they were greeted with cheers and applause by family, friends, and fellow soldiers.
| Date Taken: | 07.19.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 07.21.2014 19:43 |
| Story ID: | 136827 |
| Location: | IRVINE, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 165 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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