CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It’s a moment that every military family looks forward to.
“My life is full again. I’m happy he’s home,” said Tina Manley, of Elkview.
Her husband, William Manley, was one of nearly 100 airmen to return home to West Virginia Tuesday.
“I’m just glad to be back,” said Manley, a tech sergeant with the West Virginia Air National Guard.
Members of the 130th Airlift Wing were deployed in the Middle East for about four months. They returned home Monday and Tuesday where family members and friends anxiously awaited their arrival at the McLaughlin Air National Guard Base in Charleston.
“It’s been lonely,” Tina Manley said. “It’s been a long couple months. I have boys and they miss their dad too.”
Senior airmen Cody Carr, of Pinch, could barely find the words to describe how happy he was to hold his two month old daughter in his arms.
“It’s just something to look forward to,” he told MetroNews fighting back tears as he looked into his daughter Georgia’s eyes.
Carr was surrounded by family including his father-in-law Robert Steele who serves as a recruiter for the West Virginia Army National Guard.
“I’m glad to have him home,” Steele said. “Don’t have to worry about him and knowing he’s there with my daughter and my grand-baby, it means the world to me.”
The 130th Airlift Wing’s C-130Hs and support personnel supported Operation Inherent Resolve in Southwest Asia. They were instrumental in helping the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing achieve a mission capable rate of 95.8 percent, a three-year high, according to the West Virginia Air National Guard.