BRISTOL, Tenn. – Nine members of the Tennessee Army National Guard 253rd Military Police Company’s Bristol Detachment 1 spent their first full day back from Iraq in low-key fashion Tuesday.
The nine Bristol-based troops – among 52 members of the 253rd who arrived in Smyrna, Tenn. Monday after nearly six months in Iraq – had family members and friends pick them up in that city, some 245 miles west of Bristol.
By doing so, the Bristol troops avoided the attention and fanfare that would have greeted them had they returned to their home armory, located on Bluff City Highway.
“I’m very proud of them and the work they did, and I’m glad they’re back,” Sgt. Roger Franklin of Bristol’s Detachment 1, said Tuesday afternoon at the unit’s largely deserted armory.
“I wish they could have brought the rest of our folks back with them,” Franklin said. “But I’m looking forward to seeing them soon, too.”
The returning members of the 253rd, which also included Tennessee National Guard troops based in Memphis and Lenoir City, were among 170 soldiers who left for Iraq on March 28.
The military-police company, which provided support and training to Iraqi security forces, are now heading back as part of the U.S. government’s withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
In all, 25 Bristol-based soldiers were included in the March deployment. Their tour was originally scheduled to last up to 12 months.
Sgt. Bryan Nephew, a unit member who was scheduled for the Iraqi tour but eventually reassigned back to the Bristol headquarters because of extremely severe allergic reactions to a bee sting – said he’s been struck by the good morale of his fellow Detachment 1 members whenever he’s contacted them in Iraq.
“Everybody went over there focused on doing their mission and doing it well,” Nephew said.
“I’ve been working side by side with a lot of them for three years now, so I’ve missed being around them,” Nephew said. “I’m just proud and glad that they’re starting to come back home.”
The returning nine members of Bristol’s Detachment 1 can now spend up to 60 days off from reserve duty, before returning for required training at the Bristol armory sometime in November, Nephew said.
rbrown@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2512
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