Cheering crowd welcomes home more than 40 Mildenhall Airmen

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Kathy Ferrero
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  Nervous anticipation ripples through the base passenger terminal. When the conversations pause, people repeatedly glance toward frosted double doors. Many stuff their hands in their pockets and jingle change. Young children walk hurriedly through the crowd and grin up at whoever notices them. 

Each one came Friday to welcome someone among the 40 warriors returning from Southwest Asia. 

One 11-month-old toddler, Christopher Martinez, sits with his legs spread on the floor. He's mesmerized by his mom's hand gestures as she talks playfully to him. 

"He's been gone for a while. Hopefully he'll recognize him," Victoria Martinez says of Christopher's father, Airman 1st Class Chris Martinez. Martinez deployed as a vehicle maintainer from the 100th Logistics Readiness Squadron six months ago. 

A few seats down near the entrance, a man watches Victoria and Christopher. He was here when Martinez left, he says. 

"Every time I have a team rotate like this, when they come home, it's a little harder for them to get back into their daily routine," says Chief Master Sgt. Darren Silsbee, vehicle fleet manager here, of Martinez and the four other maintainers who deployed from his unit. "I'm most concerned with how they interact with family." 

The room temperature grows warm. In a quarter of an hour, the crowd has multiplied to nearly 100, spilling out into the main foyer of the passenger terminal.  100th Air Refueling Wing Commander Col. Eden Murrie and other leaders stand against the wall by the frosted glass door. 

The door opens. Three uniformed men emerge. 

They work at the passenger terminal. People behind the crowd say "Ohh!" after clapping.
Victoria scoops Christopher and walks to a space in the front of the crowd. 

"Are you gonna' give Daddy a kiss?" she says. 

She treats him to a series of diversions. Christopher laughs as she leans him back and then up again to a kiss. After a few minutes, she sets him down between her feet and relinquishes her hands from his. Like a woodpecker, he leans forward and stabs the air with his rear a few times before crumpling down. 

Several sandy blurs are visible through the glass. 

"How long do they have to wait behind the doors?" Victoria asked. "It seems like an eternity." 

Sweethearts from San Antonio, she and Chris have been married two and a half years. She's nervous. It's like starting all over again, she says. 

Standing near Victoria, Tina Gayton knows the feeling. She and Staff Sgt. William Gayton, 100th LRS, were married 10 years ago, she said. Yet the excitement of his return feels similar to a first date. 

Tina and their three children are waiting for Christmas until Gayton gets home. "I guess it's our sacrifice," she says. 

The minutes drip by. 

The crowd murmurs "Awws." A two-foot-tall girl has her forehead stuck to the glass, her hands spread flat against it above her. As though in a mirror, a crouching uniformed female figure on the other side of the glass has her hands on the little girl's. The mom just signed "I love you," Tina says. 

Christopher is bobbing on Mom's hip now. He stares at a stranger. They talk using facial expressions. 

The glass door swings open again. Conversation stops. One by one, Airmen emerge pushing luggage carts. The crowd cheers and applauds. 

The Airmen's eyes are wide open and glazed as they look for the familiar. One man carries an Air Force teddy bear. His eyes lock with his wife's. 

"Look. There's Daddy." 

Airman Martinez approaches Victoria. Her free arm hooks around his neck as she kisses his cheek. An invisible string pulls the back of his head out of the embrace. He considers his son. He laughs.