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ort Stewart soldiers who deployed late last year to Liberia to help combat the Ebola epidemic in West Africa have all returned to the United States.
The final two soldiers with Delta Company, 82nd Civil Affairs Battalion this week arrived at Fort Bliss, Texas, where they are currently undergoing their mandated 21-day controlled monitoring period that was designed to ensure the public none of the about 3,000 U.S. soldiers who served in West Africa were infected by the deadly virus.
The 32 soldiers from Delta Company were the only Fort Stewart troops to deploy in support of Operation United Assistance, the U.S. Military’s non-combat role in support of the region’s struggle against Ebola.
“It’s really nice to be home,” said Army Spc. Kevin Mims, a medic who deployed in November to Liberia’s capital, Monrovia. “Now we just get to spend some time with family. My wife is pregnant, and we’re expecting soon, so I’m focused on spending some time with her.
“It’s just nice to be back in the U.S.”
Mims spent most of the deployment working with United Nations teams in Liberia. Even for a soldier assigned to a unit specifically trained to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to Sub-Saharan Africa, the mission was unique, he said.
“We weren’t getting out into the population as much,” he said. “We were going to the national offices and doing more logistical and strategic exercises with them — making sure everything was in line.
“It was really interesting being a part of something worldwide, that everyone kind of knew about and was focusing on. That’s a really cool experience. Being in Africa and getting to go on a civil affairs deployment — it was just a really interesting and a fun experience.”
The deployment was a huge shift for Staff Sgt. Chase Duke, a former infantryman who served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Serving in a part of the world where seemingly everyone wants you there was exciting, Duke said.
“Everywhere we went people were friendly and wanted to talk to us, and you never ran into anyone that didn’t seem to want us there,” he said. “I think that’s what made the difference — this is just my opinion — in the way they were treating Ebola.
“Once (the Liberians) saw the (U.S. Military aircraft) flying overhead, the people in Liberia took (Ebola) a lot more seriously. They understood that they need to do what we were telling them to do.”
Eventually it paid off, said Maj. Kyle Upshaw, Delta Company’s commander.
When his troops arrived in Liberia, the country was experiencing between 40 and 50 confirmed cases of Ebola each week. When they left, that number had dwindled to less than two.
“We learned early on that basically the whole mood in Liberia really changed when our president announced that the U.S. was going to be sending (military) forces there,” Upshaw said. “The biggest thing the U.S. was able to bring was just general confidence.
“When word that the U.S. Military was there, and when (the Liberian people) actually saw us in our uniforms, with our trucks, with our helicopters the country had almost like a wave of confidence just overcome them.”
The Fort Stewart soldiers, Upshaw added, never came into contact with Ebola patients. Troops were monitored for temperature twice each day, and no one showed any signs of illness.
The unique deployment, Upshaw said, gave his soldiers a really good opportunity to learn about the U.S. and international aid agencies that were front and center in the fight against Ebola.
“Being a part of a large, international relief effort you realized that the military is just one of many players in a big mission like this,” he said. “It really was like the who’s who of international relief. We realized that we can’t do a mission like this alone, that we have our unique capability and others have their own. It came together and made a big impact on Liberia.”