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Shaw welcomes home 4th BCD Soldiers

  • Published
  • By Sgt. Mylinda D. DuRousseau
  • Third Army Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE --  Soldiers of the 4th Battlefield Coordination Detachment and their family members attended a redeployment luncheon at Carolina Skies Club here, March 15.

More than 30 members of the 4th BCD returned from a six-month deployment to Southwest Asia where they served as the liaison between air and ground forces covering U.S. Central Command's 20-country area of responsibility, spanning from Egypt to Afghanistan.

The returning Soldiers, 4th BCD's team one, have been replaced in theater by the detachment's team two.

The 4th BCD mission is to provide a direct link from the headquarters of U.S. Air Force Central to units on the ground, explained Sgt. 1st Class Stanko S. Stojanovich, operations noncommissioned officer in charge for team one.

"Any kind of mission that we need Air Force assets to work with army units on the ground, we're there to help make sure that that actually happens." Stojanovich said.

After welcoming the team home, Lt. Col. Philip D. McCutcheon, deputy commander of the 4th BCD, highlighted some accomplishments from the mission.

The colonel said the unit handled over 2,000 ground engagements, or troops in contact, reports by working with the Combined Air Operations Center coordinating air support ensuring units receive air power as soon as possible.

In addition, team one processed more than 17,000 joint tactical air requests and facilitated more than 600,000 pounds of ammunition drops.

"They did an awesome job and we are proud of them." added Colonel McCutcheon. "We are going to continue to support the mission from back here now."

The 4th BCD works hand-in-hand with Third Army in its mission to sustain the fight and keep the USARCENT area of operation ready to respond at all times.

Major Gen. Mark W. Graper, assistant deputy commander, U.S. Air Forces Central, thanked the members of 4th BCD for a job well done.

"If you didn't do what you did, and if you didn't do it very well, the air component would not have been able to support the ground component with bombs on target, with air drops, with airlift, and those other kinds of logistics support ." said General Graper. "So what you did was important and I appreciate it."

The 4th BCD, commanded by Col. Tom Kelly, has more than 80 soldiers and is a major subordinate command of Third Army/U.S. Army Central. The unit's mission is to facilitate and synchronize air and ground operations within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility.