Over 200 National Guard Members Welcomed Home - WBOC-TV 16, Delmarvas News Leader, FOX 21 -

NEWARK, Del.- More than 200 National Guard Members were welcomed home from their 2018 deployments overseas.

It was  a seas of soldiers in Newark on Sunday February 11, 2019 as service members returned home from the 166th Airlift Wing Deployment.

19 of those service members were from Kent and Sussex Counties.

Jeff Dillon, an aircraft mechanic of Dover, was deployed for four months and just returned home this past November. 

Dillon says this mission put things in perspective. He says, "It's a new unit, it's changing. And a lot of guys this was their first deployment, so it was great on one of my last deployments to get to train some of our young airmen."

Of the 10 different airlift units that were deployed in 2018 - one flew over 180 medical evacuation missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. A critical, but completed mission now celebrated by Delaware leaders.

Liza Orlando of Milford served overseas for over a year as the director of operations for the air evacuation operations team.

Orlando says it meant so much to be appreciated for her hard work. She went on to say, "It makes you feel valued, it makes you feel important because sometimes you don't understand how big of a piece you are of the whole entire puzzle. And you're a part of something bigger than yourself."