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MARINES CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. - Marines of Marine Wing Support Squadron 274 returned to Cherry Point, N.C., from Afghanistan after a seven-month deployment Sunday.
A crowd of nearly 250 family members and friends greeted the MWSS-274 Marines late Sunday night at the squadron’s fuel facilities near the flight line. The majority of the unit will be returning later this month.
Cecile Vadon came all the way from Houston, Texas, to see her son, Sgt. Richard Oglesby.
“I haven’t seen him since Christmas,” Vadon said. “I can’t wait to give him a big hug. It’s difficult, but knowing that they’re doing what they love makes it worth it.”
Master Sgt. Robert Casey, the senior enlisted advisor for MWSS-274, believes that the mission was a success and that MWSS-274 exceeded all expectations.
“We set the bar higher for all Marine wing support squadrons going into Afghanistan,” Casey said, adding that MWSS-274 was vital to successful operations in Helmand province.
While deployed, they supported 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward), 1st Marine Division, and I Marine Expeditionary Force, conducting operations ranging from constructing new flight lines to training Afghan police.
This success came with the challenge of overcoming the hardship of family separation.
“It’s always a challenge whether it’s for one week or seven months,” explained Casey.
Though separation due to deployment can be difficult for both the family members and the Marines, MWSS-274 had a plan in place to overcome this difficulty. The squadron utilized a family readiness officer who provided resources to families to assist them through the deployment and maintained open lines of communication between the deployed command, individual Marines and their families.
“I coordinated video teleconferences with various forward operating bases in Afghanistan, so our Marines would have the opportunity to see their families several times during the deployment,” said Jill Buria, the FRO of MWSS-274. “FROs provide families with direct correspondence from the command forward deployed in the ways of newsletters, articles, photographs and messages, both verbal and written.”
According to Buria, the majority of the families in MWSS-274 felt that this deployment was easier than previous deployments, and time passed extremely quickly. Even so, the reunion between Marines and family members was still very happy.
“Reunions are always amazing and exciting regardless of how long the service member has been gone,” said Buria. “Having a complete family back together and parents knowing that their children have returned safely to the United States is just incredible.”
| Date Taken: | 09.05.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 09.09.2010 14:35 |
| Story ID: | 55974 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 300 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
This work, MWSS-274 completes mission: Squadron returns after success in Afghanistan, by Cpl Scott L. Tomaszycki, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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