Feature -- Warrior stories - Chief Master Sgt. Rick Bunce shares story of deployment

  • Published
  • By Karen Abeyasekere
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  Chief Master Sgt. Rick Bunce, 100th Logistics Readiness Squadron chief enlisted manager, deployed to Kuwait April to October 2007.

He was assigned to the 424th Medium Truck Detachment, known as the "Centurions", where he was in charge of 158 personnel who attended the Basic Combat Convoy Course at Camp Bullis, Texas, before their deployment.

"We had to build ourselves into a cohesive combat team before we were shipped to Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, and put underneath the Joint Logistics task Force working under the Army," he said.

The 424th MTD was one of six companies within the group that operated convoys in and out of Iraq. He said a typical convoy was made up of seven U.S. military trucks, three gun-trucks and 40 civilian contractors' trucks.

"Each convoy could cover at least three miles of road space," he said, adding that the convoy commander of each team was always a technical sergeant, and there were eight convoys with 14 members in each team. It was a pretty amazing feat -- each (technical sergeant) was responsible for three miles of convoy in a combat zone.

"We were there when President George W. Bush ordered the surge, which meant we had to deliver more combat equipment. Our guys worked really, really hard in some really dangerous times."

There were nearly 100 combat operations into Iraq during the height of the surge, and the truckers travelled 3.9 million miles, escorting contractors moving 53.8 tons of mission-essential cargo.

The 424th MTD had M915 tractors and trailers, along with electronic counter measures and jamming devices, communications and tracking gear.

While in the convoys, they were constantly under fire, often from explosively-formed penetrators, which can punch through almost any kind of armor.

"It wasn't a matter of 'if' you were going to get hit - it was a matter of 'when'," said Chief Bunce, who took his baby son's first pair of shoes with him on his deployment, and put them on the dashboard of his truck every time he went out on a mission.

Unfortunately, one month into the deployment in Kuwait, the "when" finally happened - on June 10, 2007, one of the chief's Airmen, Airman 1st Class Eric Barnes, was killed in action when an EFP penetrated one of their vehicles.

"We lost Eric in June, and still had five months to go. Losing him brought us closer together - we were rated the number one company (out of six medium truck companies) by the Joint Task Force commander. We did more missions, covered more miles and delivered more cargo than any other," he said.

"We were involved in almost every engagement that was going on there, and did all our missions at night - the roads there were really spooky; it was pitch black, the radios in the trucks were going non-stop, and out of nowhere we'd see Iraqis along the roadside. I saw trucks blown up right in front of me."

But the 100th LRS chief said he couldn't be prouder of that mission.

"I've been in (the military) for almost 28 years. It was the most awesome responsibility I've ever had, and I wouldn't trade it for anything," he said. "But if I could do anything differently, it would be to bring Airman Barnes back. There's no stronger bond I've had anywhere in my career than with the group of men and women from that deployment."