Airmen return from Iraq, Afghanistan Published Dec. 14, 2006 By Senior Airman Travis Edwards Nellis AFB Public Affairs NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. -- Nellis welcomed home 89 Airmen Tuesday from their deployment from Iraq and Afghanistan. Seventy-two of the troops just finished up an eight-month deployment to Camp Bucca, Iraq, where they where perimeter security and "outside-the-wire" patrols for the main internment facility in Iraq. All were members of the 99th Security Forces Group. The remaining 17 were also security forces members serving eight months in Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, as guards to the only internment facility in Afghanistan. The Bagram team was unique in that security forces leadership from Nellis stood-up the facility last year. Security forces from Nellis are consistently the most heavily tasked unit to support internment facilities for both operation Enduring and Iraqi Freedom, said Maj. John-Paul Mickle, the 99th Security Forces Squadron commander. Before moving out to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Airmen underwent a 60-day training course that entailed convoy training, detecting improvised explosive devices, hand-to-hand combat and detainee training, everything Army Soldiers are trained on. Camp Bucca is an Army post with an Army mission, but the Army needed help from the Air Force to achieve that mission. The Air Force was called upon and answered by operating the entire internment facility and providing its security. "They are expected, as Airmen, to know and handle any situation like a Soldier would," said the major. "Just as if we were to ask them to help us on the flightline, we would expect them to know and perform as an Airman." Collectively, there were three Purple Heart recipients from this deployment. There are 147 security forces Airmen from Nellis who are currently deployed.
