Seven U.S. Army veterans met in Clarkton recently to celebrate their return from Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm in April 35 years ago.
Clarkton resident Rusty Marsh hosted the group of his “battle buddies” who served closely together years ago at his home and the nearby Bladen Outdoors facility. Their last reunion was held two years ago in Thomasville, Georgia.
The veterans arrived in Clarkton on Thursday, April 9 for two full days of activities before heading home on Sunday, April 12.
The group spent Friday, April 10 on Colonel Greg Rawlings pontoon boat that he pulled from Virginia to Lake Waccamaw. On Saturday, April 11, the group did some range time shooting, then traveled to Fayetteville to tour the Airborne and Special Operations Museum followed by a tour of Fort Bragg and Pope Army Airfield to see all the changes that had been made since their duty there.
Before leaving Fort Bragg, they visited the Memorial erected for the fallen soldiers from their unit on Smoke Bomb Hill.
“We enjoyed every minute with each other and talked like we had only been apart for a couple of months,” Marsh said. “Like brothers, we all picked on each other in the way we did back in the desert years ago.”
The soldiers deployed from Fort Bragg in the fall of 1990 with the peacetime configuration of the 30th Engineer Battalion and its separate Companies under the 20th Engineer Brigade (Airborne).
Before departing from their most recent visit, plans were tentatively made for September 2028 to reunite in the Adirondack Mountains in New York near Piseco Lake.
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