HUNTER ARMY AIRFIELD, Ga. - Eighty Soldiers from the Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 260th Quartermaster Battalion, landed at the Truscott Air Terminal at Hunter Army Airfield in the early morning hours of April 26.
The 260th Quartermaster Battalion, under the leadership of Lt. Col. Robert J. Dixon, commander, and Command Sgt. Maj. Dwight H. Williams, deployed last year to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom 09-11. From June 9, 2009 to April 22, 2010, they served as a Combat Sustainment Support Battalion whose function is very different from that of a functional Quartermaster Battalion. The Battalion delivered 30,856 Bottled Water pallets (23.7 million bottles) and 9,988 tons of Ice to four different locations in United States Division - Central; they completed 2,001 convoys totaling 1,683,214 miles. The Battalion averaged eight convoys every night with 31 vehicles and 280 personnel (Soldiers and Civilian contractors).
"The best thing about the deployment was seeing our Soldiers that had trained so hard in garrison and at the National Training Center, come together and truly perform at the highest levels. The active, Army Reserve and Army National Guard Soldiers that made up our Logistics Task Force provided not just daily sustainment to the Soldiers in Baghdad but also were instrumental to the Strategic movement of Equipment and Personnel from Iraq," said Lt. Col. Dixon. "In 12 months...we saw a lot of positive change in Iraq as we prepare to transition to Stability Operations."
Lieutenant Colonel Lillard D. Evans, 260th Quartermaster Bn. and 3rd Sustainment brigade-rear commander, along with Soldiers of 260th Quartermaster Battalion, was at the Terminal to greet their fellow Soldiers as they disembarked. Members of the USO were also there to welcome them home. After listening to the Welcome Home brief by Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo, 3rd Infantry Division and Task Force Marne commanding general, and Command Sgt. Maj. Jesse Andrews, they boarded the buses provided and were taken to their Welcome Home Ceremony at the Tominac Fitness Center, where they were greeted with screams, clapping of hands and stomping of feet by friends and Family Members waiting to see them.
Colonel Stuart J. McRae, 3rd ID rear detachment commander, spoke at the Welcome Home Ceremony. He thanked the Soldiers of Headquarters and Headquarters Company for a job well done and welcomed them as new members of "an exclusive club."
"In a few months, the number of combat Soldiers in Iraq, which is (more than) 100,000 right now, will be cut down to 50,000," he said. "(In the) coming year, it is going to be down to the last Soldiers finally coming home, and then the exclusive club membership will come to an end. You are all members of an elite group of people who have served in Iraq, and that is no small thing. The division is very proud of you."
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