188th Airmen to Return from Afghanistan

Staff Writer
5NEWS / KFSM-TV
3:59 PM CDT, May 14, 2010

200 airmen with the Arkansas Air National Guard's 188th Fighter Wing are coming home. On Monday, the troops are scheduled to return from a deployment to Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan.

They have been there between two and four months as part of the 188th's Aerospace Expeditionary Forces rotation, according to a release from the Arkansas National Guard.

The airmen and their families will reunite with their families at the base on Leigh Avenue in Fort Smith that evening around 6 p.m.

Another set of 50 airmen and the 188th's deployed A-10Cs are set to return from Kandahar later next week. Officials say this was the first AEF deployment for the 188th as a unit since receiving the A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthogs" in April 2007.

Source

Please note: The returning "Hogs" are not only from the 188th. On their way back home to CONUS from Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, after an Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) combat deployment are twelve A-10Cs, deployed with an Air National Guard "Rainbow Team". They will make a stopover at Lajes Field, Azores.

Known serial numbers: 78-0640, 78-0682, 78-0702, 78-0719, 78-0720, 79-0082, 79-0165 (all from the 104th FS, 175th Wing, Maryland ANG); 78-0613, 78-0659, 79-0129, 80-0166 (all from the 184th FS, 188th FW, Arkansas ANG)

As mentioned on the Dutch Scramble Message Board by René (username Dutchmil), on May 15, 2010, they should arrive at Lajes next Wednesday, May 19, 2010.

Question: Anybody who got confirmed info about the awaited A-10C replacement unit? If really deployed, they must be already at Kandahar Airfield to relieve the ANG "Rainbow Team" in place.