First wave of Airmen deploy from Ellsworth Published Sept. 7, 2006 ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. (AFPN) -- The first wave of about 550 Ellsworth Airmen deployed to various locations throughout Southwest Asia to support ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.The majority of the Airmen, from operational and maintenance units, left earlier this week to join the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing and serve alongside other U.S. and coalition forces. "Everyone is ready to go do what they are trained to do, and everyone is going to do a great job," said Lt. Col. Charlie Catoe, 28th Operations Group deputy commander and troop commander for the first deployment.The wing supports a wide range of missions including fighter, airlift, refueling and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. This collection makes the wing a large hub for humanitarian airlift in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa.Some support Airmen also deployed this week, including security forces, services, civil engineers, firefighters and personnel workers. All will support operations for at least four to six months. They all went through training before deploying."It gets us in step with what we're going to do while we're deployed," said Tech. Sgt. Shelia Wilson, 28th Security Forces Squadron assistant flight chief. "We learned the desert-combat side of things -- how to do convoys, and how to survive and work in a desert-type of environment. It gets us acclimated."And I'm excited to have the opportunity to do what I signed up to do -- protect our country."