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Troops Home After Middle East Tour

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By NEIL JOHNSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 8, 2007

TAMPA - Shanna Rodriguez was so eager to see her husband after his four-month deployment in Qatar she showed up an hour before his flight arrived Friday at Tampa International Airport.

When husband Christopher walked through the airport gate, Shanna dashed forward and greeted him with a kiss that stretched on and on.

Her hello was much like that of other wives as about 15 members of the Joint Communication Support Element based at MacDill Air Force Base came back from a tour of the Middle East. They left here in August.

There were cheers, kisses, hearty back-slapping hugs and tears as the soldiers came through the arrival gate. In addition to family, members of the unit formed a reception committee, something the unit's commander, U.S. Army Col. John Morrison, wants to revive and continue.

Jose and Minerva Nunez greeted their son, Marc, with balloons, Sunburst candy and cookies. He used to be called Cookie Monster, his parents said.

It was the first deployment for Marc Nunez, whose parents both served in the Marines.

"I'm glad he's coming home. That's enough. And that nothing happened to him," Jose Nunez said.

The reunion for Shanna Rodriguez was even more poignant because of a day's delay when the troops' flight was held overnight Thursday in Cincinnati.

"I kept telling him on the phone, 'Can't you just get another plane?'" Shanna said.

A priority for the Rodriguezes now that he's home is to plan a fifth anniversary trip to Disney World.

Christopher Rodriguez, completing his first deployment, said there was constant worry about what was happening there and at home.

"The whole reason we're there is to protect our families," he said.

Qatar was a shock for Marc Nunez.

"You leave a place with trees, grass and buildings and go to a place where it's all rocks and bunkers," he said. "When I took my first step off the plane it was like stepping into a big, humungous oven."

Over the next few days, about 60 more members of the unit will return to Tampa from deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The unit has roughly 1,100 troops operating under the U.S. Joint Forces Command. The unit has members of the Army, Navy, Army Reserve and Air National Guard.

The returning soldiers will spend about six months here, half the time on leave and in training, with the other three months in team training for their next deployment.

Some have shipped out six or seven times, said U.S. Army Reserve Lt. Col. Rich DuBreuil, commander of the 4th Joint Communications Support Squadron.

The unit provides quick response communications, setting up communications networks until large units of other services arrive and establish more permanent operations.

Members of the unit also set up communications at the Super Dome in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

"We're the quick reaction AT&T" for the Department of Defense, Morrison said.

A typical U.S. Army deployment is 15 months overseas and 12 months at home, he said.

Their replacements are in the field.

This week, a National Guard unit in the Tampa Bay area learned it will be sent to Afghanistan.

The 53rd Infantry Brigade based in Pinellas County will ship out in the summer of 2009. At 3,400 members, it is Florida's largest National Guard unit.

In 2002, 1,200 members of the Guard unit were dispatched to Iraq, and in 2005, 1,800 members were sent to Afghanistan for a year.

Reporter Neil Johnson at can be reached at (813) 259-7731 or njohnson@tampatrib.com.

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