432d AMXS members return from Iraq deployment

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Alice Moore
  • 432d Wing Public Affairs
CREECH AFB Nev. --  More than 40 Airmen recently returned from a three-month deployment to Joint Base Balad in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom where they formed the first MQ-9 Reaper Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Unit in support of Reaper Combat Air Patrols in Iraq. 

The deployed unit was comprised of Airmen from the 432d Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and the Royal Air Force along with one member of the Nevada Air National Guard. 

From the beginning of October, to the beginning of December, the unit generated 56 MQ-9 sorties and contributed to 623.5 flying hours. 

"We accomplished a lot with 56 sorties. It's an amazing feeling to know you're a part of that," said Airman 1st Class Ashley Graves, 432d AMXS management production specialist. 

Maintenance personnel within the AMU consisting of crew chiefs, satellite communications specialists and plans and scheduling, worked to stand up the AMU as well as keep the Reaper up and running. 

"My team did a seamless job," said Capt. Antonio Camacho, officer in charge of the deployed Reaper Expeditionary AMU. "Even with the different specialties within the AMU, everyone worked together to accomplish the mission." 

The accomplishments of the Reaper AMU both here and abroad is a true testament to the level of dedication from the maintenance Airmen assigned to the unit, said Col. Michael Stickney, 432d Maintenance Group commander. 

"It's great to be involved in making Reaper history with its first blue-suit deployment to the Area of Responsibility," Colonel Stickney said. "We only activated the Reaper AMU in February 2008, so to see them overcome the training and logistical challenges that presented, and to perform so magnificently in the AOR makes me very proud to be associated with them."

The Reaper is a medium-to-high altitude, long endurance unmanned aircraft system. Its primary mission is to be a persistent hunter-killer against emerging targets to achieve joint force commander objectives. The Reaper's alternate mission is to act as an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance asset, employing sensors to provide real-time data to commanders and intelligence specialists at all levels.

Since the Reaper sorties began, the MQ-9 has provided persistent strike capability for anti-Iraqi targets to include a weapons engagement that destroyed a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device in southeast Iraq Aug. 16. 

The Reaper began flying combat sorties in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom July 18.