FORT CAMPBELL, KY. – (CLARKSVILLENOW) It was a beautiful day for a homecoming at Fort Campbell Wednesday as 149 soldiers with the 1st Brigade Combat Team “Bastogne” stepped off the plane after a 6-month deployment to Africa.
The 1st Battalion, 237th Infantry Regiment of the 101st returned from a 6-month mission supporting United States Africa Command on the Horn of Africa.
One soldier, 1st Lieutenant Jordan Scanlan, met his daughter Sadie for the first time. Scanlon talked about how it felt to meet his little girl.
“It’s pretty surreal, now you’re home and see your family and it’s really nice out. This human being that I didn’t have six months ago, I’m still a kid so I don’t know what I’m going to do, it’s awesome,” Scanlan said.
Scanlan’s wife Neva said she was speechless but was very excited to have him home.
The soldiers of Company C, “Coldsteel” and Company D “Maddog” made up elements of the East African Response Force, a rapid-response and security force for the U.S. locations and interests within the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa area of operations. The soldiers also provided security forces at sites in South Sudan, a historic first for the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).