CORONADO, Calif. – Eleven-year-old Devin Tinsley could barely contain her excitement as she and her siblings waited Wednesday for their dad to fly in from the USS Abraham Lincoln on one of two C-2 planes.
“Daddy’s coming, Daddy’s coming,” said the girl, jumping up and down alongside her sister Taylor and brother Zachary. For the occasion, each of the kids took the day off from classes at Adobe Bluffs Elementary School in Poway, Calif.
Only moments before, family members had heard the words that they’d been waiting nearly 10 months to hear – their loved ones were only 4 minutes away.
“It’s like Christmas and Halloween put together,” Devin said.
Almost 100 strong, the families and friends gathered at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado were waiting for the 50 pilots and support crew of Detachment One, part of the VCR-30 (the Fleet Logistical Support Squadron) which has been serving aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln during the war in Iraq.
Soon smoke trails signaling the arrival of the planes were evident in the sky. A sea of family members stood anxiously on the tarmac, most dressed in red, white and blue, clutching flowers and balloons.
Within minutes, the two planes roared overhead — a traditional entry.
Many in the crowd grew emotional at the sight. They waved and shouted. Boys
and girls held tiny American flags high in the air.
“That’s my favorite part,” said Stephanie Basden, who was waiting for her husband, Lt. Cmdr. Drew Basden.
The men and women coming home Wednesday were several months late. On New Year’s Eve, just two weeks before their deployment was supposed to be over, they found out they were headed to the Persian Gulf instead.
“I think we already knew, pretty much, deep down inside, that they were going back,” Stephanie Basden said.
But on Wednesday, those long months were fading into a memory. After the planes taxied to a stop, the crowd ran out on to the tarmac looking for that special person they waited so long to see.
Stephanie Basden made her way to her husband, Drew, who grew teary-eyed at being reunited with his family, including daughters Caroline and Sarah and his son Andrew.
“I always cry the first 30 seconds after I see my wife,” he said. “I’m extremely happy and I’m going to go and have some quiet time with my family somewhere where I don’t have to hear jets taking off. Ten months is a long time.”
A similar scene was taking place just a few feet away as Devin, Zachary, Taylor and their mother, Julie Johnson, were all wrapped in a bear hug with Jeremy Johnson, a chief electrical aviation technician.
“It’s like the Super Bowl and the World Series combined,” Jeremy Johnson said, sounding a lot like his daughter, Devin. “It’s been pretty tough. It’s just so good to be home — finally.”
Kimberly Epler is a staff writer for the North County Times, an Escondido, Calif.-based newspaper covering northern San Diego and Southwest Riverside Counties.
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