Members are honored for overseas service

Many have been active since 2003 and have supported major operations.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
VIENNA -- When the 773rd Airlift Squadron left the Youngstown Air Reserve Station two years ago for its duty in Iraq, its commander, Lt. Col. Bryan Bly, told the unit members: "You work for the 19-year-old kid driving a humvee."
As they were welcomed home Saturday afternoon, Col. Tim Thomson told them, "Now it's time to recharge your batteries, get back to your civilian lives and reconnect with your families."
Thomson, commander of the 910th Airlift Wing, of which the 773rd is a part, and Bly spoke to more than 90 Air Force reservists honored for their overseas service at Saturday's ceremony at the air base and welcomed them home in time for the holiday season.
"What they did over there is not about oil. It's about ideology, and it's about people who want all of us dead," said Bly of Chippewa, Pa.
"When these jihadists think that the Americans are going to cut and run, they grossly underestimated the resolve, the strength, the tenacity and the bravery of these fine airman," Bly told the audience.
Members of the 773rd were on active duty from Dec. 1, 2003, to Nov. 30 of this year, supporting major military operations, including Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
"It's not over. We passed the torch to another several squadrons. There's still support staff over there, and their job is to support those ground troops," Bly said.
"Our primary mission is combat support. We take care of the Army and Marine Corps on the ground and the Navy. We move them from place to place. We supply them with food and equipment," he added.
"This was a classic resupply of an Army in the field for a long-term mission. Sometimes, everything that they depend on is on our airplane," he said. "We go into these remote places. We may be the only resupply that they have, and they're relying on what we bring them to fight the war," he explained.
Recipients of medals
With members of the reservists' families in the audience, Thomson presented 220 Air Medals and 10 Aerial Achievement Medals to unit members in the ceremony. The reservists, dressed in tan jumpsuits, marched from their seats, one row at a time, to the front of the room, where Thomson pinned the medals on each of them.
Bly also asked 20 centurions from the unit, who flew 100 or more missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, to stand as he read their names.
"Its significance is to recognize all the men and women who have put themselves in harm's way only because their country asked them to go," Maj. John Boccieri, a C-130 cargo plane pilot with the 773rd, said of the ceremony, in which he and his fellow reservists were honored.
Boccieri of New Middletown, who flew 76 missions, many in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the Democratic state representative of the 61st District.
The men and women of the 773rd went to at least 25 countries in Europe, Africa and southwest Asia, transporting more than 50,000 people and more than 9,000 tons of cargo on at least 5,500 flying missions.
Members of the 757th Airlift Squadron, the other C-130 flying unit assigned to the 910th, were honored in a ceremony in July. Twenty-three reservists with the 910th are still on active duty, said Master Sgt. Bryan Ripple, a base spokesman.