Ky. Air Guard completes deployment cycle for 2022

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Chloe Ochs
  • 123 Airlift Wing Public Affairs
LOUISVILLE, Ky. --  The Kentucky Air National Gard has completed more than a year of deployments in support of U.S. Air Force missions around the world, sending over 100 Airmen from the 123rd Airlift Wing to 10 countries and five combatant commands between October 2021 and January 2023.

Kentucky Airmen supported numerous unique operations, including Operation Inherent Resolve missions for Central Command in Iraq and Syria to defeat ISIS; Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, supporting Central and Africa Command missions as part of the Global War on Terror; Joint Task Force Guantanamo, supporting Southern Command missions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and Operation Allies Welcome, the campaign to resettle more than 76,000 Afghan refugees in the United States.

Refugees were housed at eight military bases across the United States while awaiting special visa status and resettlement assistance, according to Lt. Col. Shawn Keller, deputy commander of the 123rd Mission Support Group.

Keller served as deputy mayor for the largest of three Afghan villages at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, the operation’s largest temporary housing location. JBMDL was also the last military installation supporting OAW, with the final refugees departing Feb. 19, 2022.

“Our job was to try to do our best to keep the peace,” Keller said. “I’ve been in the military for 37 years now, and this mission was unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of. It was exhausting and frustrating, but it was cool. It was one of those assignments where you see tangible results.

“When a family received their ticket to go resettle, and that child you’ve been playing ball with comes up and hugs you, and tells you goodbye, those are tangible results,” Keller continued. “A lot of the time, we just do. We don’t always get to see the end result. And I think, more so than with any other mission, I got to see that, at the end of the day, we were doing good things.”

Of the 27 Kentucky Air Guardsmen who supported Allies Welcome at JBMDL, seven also served in the resettlement village at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. All 27 volunteered for the assignment.

“I think our members are compassionate people,” Keller said. “When people think of the military and the DOD, especially the Air Force, they think of putting bombs on targets. But in my experience of being an Airman, I think that what we really come together to do — what people really want to do — is help other people. Whether it’s what we do for the state of Kentucky, when we respond to tornadoes and floods, or whether it’s serving overseas, it’s about helping people.

“To me, it’s really indicative of who we are as a military. We are there to help, and I think that’s why there was such a large-scale sense of volunteerism for this. It was a chance to reach out and affect people’s lives in a positive way. We were proud of what we did.”

All the deployments since 2021 were conducted in alignment the wing’s Reserve Component Period rotation. An RCP rotation is the manner in which Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve troops now contribute to Air Expeditionary Force requirements. It integrates aircraft and personnel deployments on a scheduled, rotating basis to support combatant commanders overseas, according to Senior Master Sgt. Adam Songy, the 123rd Airlift Wing’s logistics plans superintendent.

During this RCP rotation, KYANG Airmen also supported missions in Kuwait, Niger, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.