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Soldiers welcome new neighbors
Sgt. Monica K. Smith
3rd Combat Aviation Brigade
Soldiers from the 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade may have just returned from deployment however that didn’t stop them from welcoming other new faces to the Savannah community, March 23, during a flight line tour on Hunter Army Airfield. New members of The Landings, a community is Savannah, took a day trip to Hunter Army Airfield as part of the New Neighbors group.
“This is one of our most popular tours,” said Cathie Ramage, co-chair of the historic tours for The Landings New Neighbors group. “It gets filled quickly and we have a waiting list. Everybody is interested in coming. A lot of guys want to go because some of them have a military background.”
During the tour, guests had the opportunity to see four stations, each one showing one of the 3rd CAB’s aircraft: Apache, Black Hawk, Chinook and Kiowa Warrior. At each of the stations Soldiers who operated those aircraft explained the capabilities of their aircraft and answered questions.
“It’s really nice to have people from the community come out to see us,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Brandon Gress, a maintenance test pilot for Company A, 1st Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, 3rd CAB. “We work on these aircraft every day so for us it’s normal. We forget how we first felt when we saw an Apache or a Black Hawk up close and tours like these remind us of that feeling.”
“We were all so impressed with what we saw and heard,” said Ramage. “Being able to talk to the troops really meant a lot to us. We could have talked a lot longer and stayed longer. I couldn’t pull them away. We got to know them on a personal basis and realized what it is they are doing. Some of us have kids their age and we were just thinking, ‘they’re so young and responsible for such huge things.’ Everybody ought to have the opportunity to come here and see this.”
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