Fort Benning welcoming home Rangers, among first troops on ground in Afghanistan

By KYLE WINGFIELD
Associated Press Writer

FORT BENNING, Ga. – Army Rangers who were among the first U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan arrived home early Friday, but the excitement at the base was tempered somewhat by the sorrow that two of their numbers would not return.

About 200 members of the 75th Ranger Regiment, part of the Army's premier light infantry force, were flown to Fort Benning, where family members had gathered to meet them.

Their plane landed about 6:45 a.m. after being delayed because of fog, and even then they had to wait nearly an hour before getting off the plane.

The delay did not bother Chris Ryan as she waited in a hangar at a post airstrip to see her husband, Capt. Robert Ryan.

"Just to have him home, we'll be happy. It's been a long time," said Ryan, 32. It had been two weeks since she had talked to her husband.

The 75th is the second special operations unit to return from Operation Enduring Freedom. The 528th Special Operations Support Battalion returned to Fort Bragg, N.C., on Wednesday.

Col. Joseph Votel, commander of the 75th, said the Rangers performed "just as our country expected them to do," but noted that other troops were still fighting in Afghanistan.

"Our mission, however, is far from over," Votel told families and soldiers Friday. "The Rangers standing before you today contributed in no small way to that mission.

"There is no greater feeling for a Ranger than to know his country is behind him – 100 percent and then some."

Base spokesman Maj. Richard Patterson said soldiers of the 75th dropped into Afghanistan on Oct. 19 – the same day that two members of the regiment, Pfc. Kristofor T. Stonesifer, 28, and Spc. Jonn J. Edmunds, 20, were aboard a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed in Pakistan.

Stonesifer of Missoula, Mont., and Edmunds of Cheyenne, Wyo., were killed in the crash. Theirs were the second and third deaths of U.S. servicemen in the military campaign against al-Qaida and the Taliban militia.

Officials would not say what mission the Black Hawk was flying. Some believed it was preparing to cross into Afghanistan in the event any Rangers had to be rescued.

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On the Net:

Fort Benning: www-benning.army.mil/fbhome

APNP-12-07-01 0839CST