Soldiers in F Company, 1st Aviation Regiment, 1st Combat Aviation Brigade returned to Fort Riley Thursday evening from a nine-month deployment to Afghanistan.

The ‘Fenix’ Company supports U.S. Army operations using the Gray Eagle Unmanned Aircraft System. The commander of the company  Captain Joseph Difrancesco said they conducted reconnaisance surveillance and target acquisition. “So we did everything from covering convoys to engaging targets for ground force commanders in Afghanistan in support of their combat operations.

Brigadier General Sean Swindell was present at Marshall Army Airfield to welcome the troops back to Fort Riley.  He said they had a big impact. “They had the highest op-tempo, which means they flew a lot of missions, they fired a lot of missiles.”  He called it a “great deployment to see that.”   Swindell also noted, “They had to get a couple resupplies . The system ran out of missiles a couple times due to their op-tempo.”

Swindell expressed his pride in the unit, saying “It represents a great capability for us here in the Big Red One.”