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MCLB group home from deployment

• A group from Albany repaired and maintained ground equipment for six months at three bases in Iraq.

Susan McCord

ALBANY — Fifteen civilian workers who had been deployed to Iraq returned Tuesday to the welcoming arms of family members at Southwest Georgia Regional Airport.

“We’re just ready to welcome him home,” said Shannon Tinson, awaiting the return of her uncle, Charles L. Tinson, with three of his other nieces, his brother, sister and father.

Tinson, on his first deployment to Iraq, worked as a mechanic on ground equipment at Camp Fallujah.

He and six other employees of Maintenance Center Albany, a major tenant at Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany, along with nine workers employed by contractor Defense Support Services, returned Tuesday in two groups.

All had worked since Feb. 1 as mechanics on Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, which are designed to withstand attacks from improvised explosive devices, and other ground equipment at three locations in Iraq.

Col. Dan Gillan, commander of MCA, let out a shout and led the waiting family members in applause when the workers began filing into the terminal.

“They’re American heroes, no different than the Marines and soldiers that are over there,” Gillan said.

Curtisene Simmons said she missed her husband, Larry, very much while he was working at Al Asod, Iraq, but didn’t worry that much about his safety.

“I talked to him every day, and so I kind of knew what was going on,” she said. “When they got on the base, it’s so secure on the base they really didn’t have to worry about it.”

Larry Simmons said his first tour with Defense Support Services was “a good experience, and a chance to meet a lot of Marines, and Army, Navy, Air Force.”

He hasn’t decided whether he’ll return for another tour, but said his family was in the capable hands of his wife while he was gone.

“I’m proud of her. It’s good to be home and have some time to see them, and spend some time with the grands,” he said.

The workers had the opportunity to work not only on MRAPs, but 7-ton vehicles, Humvees and all-terrain vehicles during their deployment, Simmons said.

The returning workers are allowed up to two weeks of leave after their deployment before returning to their Albany jobs, said James Nash, operations manager with the trades department at MCA.

MCA began sending volunteers to work on damaged MRAPs in July 2007 and has had as many as 38 deployed at once, according to a base publication.

A couple of the men returning Tuesday will deploy again in two weeks, three others will depart in early September, and still more will deploy for 8-12 months later this year, Nash said.

Charles Tinson’s family wasn’t thrilled about his possible deployment on another mission.

“He’s thinking about going back — we wish he would stay,” said Shannon Tinson.

But her brother is unmarried and his children are grown, Stella Tinson said.

“He’s basically a workaholic,” she said.

Tinson’s service in Iraq did not change their opinion about the need to end the war.

“It hasn’t changed my sentiment about it at all,” Shannon Tinson said.

The oldest of 12 children, Charles “has his own mind, he has his own decision,” said his father, also named Charles Tinson.

“We just support him in that,” Stella Tinson said. “We just have to have faith.”

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