On Wednesday morning, four KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft landed at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, signaling the return of nearly 80 local U.S. Air Force reservists. In April, members of the 914th Air Refueling Wing deployed from Niagara Falls as part of an undisclosed Middle East operation.
That operation saw an unexpected extension, which caused the reservists to pivot and remain away from home longer than expected. Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Abels, who has been a part of multiple deployments, said that reservists navigate these types of changes in different ways.
“The challenges change for everyone depending on where you are in life,” Abels said. “I have kids now who are old enough to know that Daddy is gone, and this is the first time that I've had a deployment like that. The challenges change depending on where you are in life.”
The reservists welcomed home on Wednesday will see around two weeks of leave before slowly returning to their civilian jobs. Operations Group Commander Jay Butterfield, of the 914th, said the return process has several levels.
“There are many things that happen in the transition back to civilian life. In that time away, you get used to that lifestyle. When you come back to how the rest of us live, like making our own breakfast, sleeping in our own beds. Some of us are just not used to that,” Butterfield said. “We look at some of the things they may have seen while they're there. That's why we offer some of our wing assets for mental health, those kinds of things to allow people to work through those issues and help them integrate with their families again.”
Butterfield said the 914th will first celebrate a successful operation before figuring out when the group will deploy again.
