Soldier earns Silver Star Taking the guidon Shooting for a target ...

10 a r k a n s a s M I N U T E M A N
September 2007
Arkansas’ 77th Aviation Briga
77th
Aviation Brigade
back from Iraq
449th Aviation Support Battalion
welcomed
Poppy’s Home!
Photo by Sgt. Rick Fahr, 119th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
Zoe Baugher (left) and Abbey
Baugher anxiously await the return of their grandfather,
Sgt. George Baugher of the 449th Aviat ion Support Battalion.
Baugher and more than two dozen other troops returned
from a deployment to Iraq. The troops were the final
group of the battalion to return. The units’ initial wave of
30 Soldiers came home last month. Col. Karen Gattis, new
commander of the 449th’s parent unit, the 77th Aviation
Brigade, said she relished welcoming the troops home. “I
couldn’t be more happy,” she said.
Photo by Sgt. Rick Fahr, 119th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
Welcome home! - Col. Karen Gattis, commander of the 77th Aviation Brigade, welcomes home Spc. Lance Hamilton
of the 449th Aviation Support Battalion. Hamilton was one of a couple dozen Troops who returned Saturday from a tour of
duty in Iraq. Joining dozens of family members were about 30 Patriot Guard Riders, volunteers who attend military funerals
and homecomings to show their support. “Our mission is anything we can do to let those men and women know that
they have people here in the states who love them and are praying for them and appreciate what they do,” explained Jeff
Hulsizer, chaplain of the Arkansas chapter of the national group. “Everybody who serves under the flag of the United States
deserves to be honored and respected.”
1st Battalion 111th Air Ambulance returns
Photo by Capt. Chris Heathscott, Arkansas National Guard State Public Affairs Office
Back in the States. Chief Warrant
Officer Derek Horton, center,
is greeted by Command Sgt. Maj.
Ira Blueford as Horton stepped
off the plane that brought his
unit home from Iraq on Saturday,
Sept. 1, 2007. A resident of Maumelle,
Ark., Horton returned to
the States, via Fort Benning, Ga.,
with the first wave of 30 Soldiers
from the 111th Air Ambulance
Company of the Arkansas Army
National Guard’s 77th Aviation
Brigade at the conclusion of the
unit’s yearlong deployment to
Iraq. Returning home with several
Florida Guardsmen, the Soldiers
were greeted by Maj. Gen. William
D. Wofford and Maj. Gen. Douglas
Burnett, the adjutants general of
Arkansas and Florida, along with
several other leaders from the
Arkansas and Florida National
Guard. The troops will return to
their respective states later this
week at the completion of out-processing
from active duty, while at
Fort Benning. The second group
of 30 Arkansas Soldiers with the
Camp Robinson based 111th Air
Ambulance Company will arrive
at Fort Benning this week as the
unit’s first group returns home to
the state.