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Photo By Staff Sgt. Patricia McMurphy | Soldiers from the 539th Transportation Company return to Fort Wainwright, Alaska, after a 12 month deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom March 10, 2012.  

FORT WAINWRIGHT, AK, UNITED STATES

03.10.2012

Story by Staff Sgt. Patricia McMurphy 

United States Army Alaska

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska - More than 140 soldiers of the 539th Transportation Company returned, March 10, from a 12-month deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

This was their second deployment in support of the Global War on Terror.

Over the course of their deployment, they completed more than 200 combat missions and covered more than 270,000 miles. The unit’s commander, Capt. Brite K. Donkor, was also proud to report a return rate of 100-percent of personnel and equipment.

“If you can move it, we moved it””, Donkor said. “We never missed a suspense; we were the best at everything we did.”

Pfc. Jacob Pettaway, a Mobile, Ala., native, now serving as a motor transport operator with the 539th said the deployment “was one of the greatest experiences I have ever experienced.”

“I have new found respect for the word freedom,” Pettaway said. “Living in a third-world country, you see what you really miss, washing machines, phones, everyday items you have back home.”

Being from what he considered a third world county, Pfc. Ashenafi Aflegn, another motor transport operator, originally from Ethiopia, said he could understand what the people of Afghanistan go through.

“They need help and I am glad to be part of it,” Aflegn said. “It was a good experience.”

Now that the unit is home, Aflegn says he plans to spend some long-awaited time off with his family, both here and in Ethiopia.

As the soldiers entered the Fort Wainwright Alert Holding Area, friends and family cheered and held up signs to welcome them home.

After brief remarks, Lt. Col. Andrew T. Mergens, commander of the 17th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, the soldiers were released to an eagerly awaiting crowd of friends and loved ones.

• Date Taken: 03.10.2012
• Date Posted: 09.10.2012 13:56
• Story ID: 94459
• Location: FORT WAINWRIGHT, AK, US