HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Mich. \u2014 About 500 National Guard pilots and support crew members have returned to Michigan from Middle East missions after what officials say was the largest and longest mass deployment from Selfridge Air National Guard Base since the Korean War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The largest group of 127th Wing Airmen returned this weekend to Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County’s Harrison Township. Selfridge officials said in a news release Saturday that the simultaneous deployment of that many men and women from the 1,700-member Wing hasn’t happened since 1953.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the personnel spent six months involved in missions in Iraq and Syria against the Islamic State group. Officials say A-10 pilots were involved in roughly 1,600 sorties and logged more than 11,000 hours of combat flight time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republican U.S. Rep. Candice Miller issued a statement thanking the men and women who deployed for their “service and sacrifice.” Her district includes the base, which has been operating for nearly a century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Syria is in its fifth year of a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and spurred a massive refugee crisis in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Islamic State group has seized a number of oil refineries and other infrastructure in Iraq and Syria as it sought to generate revenue to build a self-sufficient state. The group currently holds territory in just under a third of Iraq and Syria, and U.S.-led coalition forces continue to launch airstrikes in support of allied ground forces in both countries. Russia has recently launched military strikes in Syria that it says are intended to eradicate Islamic State forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
About 500 National Guard pilots and support crew members have returned to Michigan from Middle East missions after what officials say was the largest and longest mass deployment from Selfridge Air National Guard Base since the Korean War.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":91069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1824],"class_list":["post-52287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-your-navy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"J37OND4FXFE77MKLYRDLN27PDU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2015\/10\/25\/500-selfridge-air-national-guard-members-return-from-middle-east-mission\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n