Perdue welcomes 48th leadership and fellow Guardsmen home
HUNTER ARMY AIR FIELD, Savannah, April 7, 2010 – Governor Sonny Perdue (left) welcomes home Georgia’s 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team commander Col. Lee Durham as Durham steps onto the tarmac outside Truscott Air Terminal. Following the brigade commander is his senior enlisted leader, Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Hurndon. Major Gen. Terry Nesbitt (far left), Georgia’s Adjutant General, waits to offer his own congratulations. Among the VIPs joining Perdue and Nesbitt were State Sen. John Douglas, who co-chairs the legislature’s Veterans, Military and Homeland Security Committee; Brig. Gen. Maria Britt, Georgia Army Guard commander; and Command Sgt. Maj. James Nelson, Georgia Army Guard command sergeant major. Durham, Hurndon and the more than 250 Guardsmen who returned with them, are the latest and the last of the large groups of Soldiers to come home after spending the past year deployed to Afghanistan. Once inside the terminal, Durham and Hurndon formed up the newly arrived troops to a very few short words from their commander-in-chief. “There are more important people than I waiting to greet you at Fort Stewart,” Perdue said, referring to the loved ones and friends anxiously waiting on Cottrell Parade Field for their chance to hold them and shake their hands. “I want you to know that there are more than 10 million Georgians who are very proud of you and what you’ve done. We sent you to do a job, and you did that with honor and distinction. Thank you for your service, and again, welcome home.”
When the 48th IBCT deployed last year, its mission was to mentor and train the Afghan Army and Afghan National Security Force. Six months into the deployment, according to Durham, the mission remained, but the way the brigade went about it altered. From then on, until the time the 48th began returning home, its members began living and fighting alongside those they had trained. Once all unit members have come back, including the 20 who remain in country to finish personnel and brief senior military leaders on how the brigade did its mission, the 48th IBCT will take about a year to get its self up to speed and ready for whatever new mission the state or federal government decide to hand it, Durham said. “Makes no difference what it may be, these Soldiers, this brigade, will be ready.”