New home for Bagram DUSTOFF
On 9 November, the US Army’s Company C, 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion, 1st Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division relocated its headquarters, operations, and aircraft hangar to new facilities.
On 9 November, the US Army’s Company C, 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion, 1st Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB), 1st Infantry Division relocated its headquarters, operations, and aircraft hangar to new facilities recently completed at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. It previous home, which was described as old and dilapidated, had been home for US Army air medical evacuation units since 2004.
Col John M. Cyrulik, 1st CAB commander, and Col G. Shawn Wells, Jr, Area Support Group – Afghanistan commander, thanked all the teams, including the US Air Force 455th Expeditionary Mission Support Group (EMSG), 389th Engineer Company (Iowa Army National Guard), that pulled together to complete the new project. Cyrulik even presented awards to several individuals who played key roles in getting the job done. Wells and 455th EMSG leadership, US Air Force Col Bradford D. Coley and Chief Master Sergeant Eugene Elking, also congratulated each of the award recipients.
Cyrulik commented: “Everything we do here, everything, it’s multi-compo, it’s soldiers, airmen, sailors, reservists, National Guardsmen, from all the compo’s, from all the services … That’s the only way we get work done around here. It’s by consummate teamwork.”
The new hangar is dedicated to retired Maj. Gen. Patrick H. Brady, who earned the Medal of Honor for his gallantry as a medevac helicopter pilot in Vietnam. He also designed the unit emblem still in use by Company C. Kelly was killed in action in Vietnam.
The former home, Building 960, has some history of its own. The hangar was originally built by the US in the early 1950s for the Afghan government, but was later occupied by the Russian military throughout the 1980s. The Taliban used the hangar from 1990 until they were ousted by US forces in 2002. It was named the Evan W. O’Neill Hangar as a dedication to the 10th Mountain Division private first class infantryman who was killed in action in 2003. 1st CAB has relocated the memorial stone and rose bushes to a place of honour near the new facility. Although the plaque commemorating the dedication disappeared some years ago, the soldiers here researched and found an old photograph online and a replica of the original plaque is being made.
Building 960 is slated for demolition later this year, and after the ribbon cutting on the new facility, Cyrulik and Wells wielded sledge hammers to ceremoniously take the first demolition swings.