La. Guard welcomes home Soldiers from Afghanistan

By Sgt. Robin Perry, Public Affairs Office

MONROE, La. – The Louisiana National Guard welcomed home more than 150 Soldiers of the 1022nd Engineer Company from a 365-day deployment to Afghanistan at the Monroe Regional Airport in Monroe, Aug. 18.

“It’s great to have them home,” said Maj. Gen. Glenn H. Curtis, adjutant general of the LANG. “They had a tremendous deployment and did a great job in Afghanistan.”

Based out of West Monroe, with detachments in Ruston and Bossier City, the 1022nd mobilized to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom to aid in the construction efforts of 12 Task Forces within the Area of Operation as the lead element for construction missions in Paktika Province.

“We brought all of our Soldiers home – that’s the most important thing,” stressed Capt. Robert J. Roberts, 1022nd company commander.”

The 1022nd’s efforts provided Troops entering Afghanistan with improvements to living conditions, basic security, and overall functionality of the FOB’s (Forward Operating Bases) and COP’s (Combat Outpost) throughout the area. Their building projects included a 60-foot communication tower, a Green Bean Coffee House, 62 (B-Huts) barrack huts, 6 (SEA-Huts) Southeast Asia huts, 120 tent decks, a Morale and Welfare Center, a two stage dining facility, and 30,000 feet of HESCO barrier walls.

Shreveport native Spc. Amy Johnson said she didn’t think the deployment would go by so fast.

“Time passed quickly because we were so busy. Now I just want to be at home, relax and spend as much time with my kids as possible,” she said.

The 1022nd has previously deployed in support of Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and Operation Enduring Freedom in 2003. It has provided support during Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike; Operation Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010; construction efforts in Haiti; and flood response and recovery operations in Shreveport and along the Mississippi River.

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