First Spangdahlem jets return home from desert duty

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SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) --  Six F-16 Fighting Falcons returned home to Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, on Labor Day after a two-and a half month deployment to Southwest Asia.

The fighter jets, of the 23rd Fighter Squadron, spent their deployment providing close-air support to coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, 52nd Fighter Wing spokesperson Capt. Diane Weed said.

The return of the jets to the busy fighter base -- located in Germany's picturesque Eifel region of wooded rolling hills and farm land -- is not over, the captain said.

"This is just the beginning -- the first wave of a larger redeployment of the 23rd Fighter Squadron," Captain Weed said.

Over the next week six more Falcons and more than 200 Airmen will return to Spangdahlem, the captain said. The flight home from their Southwest Asia base took eight hours.

The wing has another unit currently fighting in the war on terror. The 81st Fighter Squadron and its A-10 Thunderbolt II ground-attack aircraft, pilots and support personnel are flying out of Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. The unit is also due to return home soon.