CMP Employees Hang Yellow Ribbons for Deployed Troops

By Dale Miles, CMP Staff Writer

Dozens of yellow ribbons such as this were hung in Port Clinton and Oak Harbor, Ohio to honor the men and women of the 200th Red Horse Air National Guard Squadron that is being deployed to a classified location in the next couple months.

Driving through the twin lighthouses that guard the entrance to Camp Perry, the home of the National Rifle and Pistol Matches and CMP Headquarters, a visitor must pass the home of the 200^th Red Horse Ohio Air National Guard Squadron that sits adjacent to Camp Perry. The Red Horse Squadron is an Ohio Air National Guard Unit whose primary mission is to provide the Air Force with a highly mobile civil engineering response force to support contingency and special operations worldwide. They are self sufficient, 404-person mobile squadron capable of rapid response and independent operations in remote, high-threat environments worldwide. They provide heavy repair capability and construction support when requirements exceed normal base civil engineer capabilities and where Army engineer support is not readily available.

And sometime in the next couple of months, they are being deployed to a classified location.

CMP employee Kathy Williams helps tie a ribbon before it is hung. Kathy’s son, SGT Charles Elliott is currently deployed in Baghdad, Iraq as part of the 230th MP Company of the U.S. Army.

Kathy Williams, a CMP employee whose son, SGT Charles Elliott is a member of the 230^th MP Company of the U.S. Army currently deployed in Baghdad, Iraq was the first to let the CMP know of the Red Horse’s deployment. Along with Susannah Charlton of the local Family Readiness group, she organized an effort to hang yellow ribbons throughout the neighboring towns of Oak Harbor and Port Clinton in honor of the Guardsmen and women being deployed.

The CMP employees who took time out of their day to hang yellow ribbons. Front row: Dana Bacak (left) and Sheri Judd. Middle row (left to right): Kathy Williams, Mike Conrad, Lue Contreras. Back row: Shannon Hand (left) and Christie Sewell. Employees Jan Meyer and Dale Miles are not pictured.

A crew of CMP employees took an hour out of their day on September 9th to converge on Oak Harbor and festoon the light poles and signs that line Water Street, the main street that passes through downtown Oak Harbor, the next town west from Camp Perry and the home of the 200^th Red Horse Squadron. In Port Clinton, a group of ten individuals from the Red Horse Squadron and the local Army Reserve unit, and their families, took to the streets to make sure that town was properly decorated.

The yellow ribbons will serve as a reminder of the sacrifice these military units are making for their country and the thanks that all American citizens owe to them. They will remain as a symbol of the pride and appreciation that the local community has in the 200^th Red Horse Squadron and as a wish for a quick and safe return of these men and women to their families, homes and country.

For more information about the 200^th Red Horse Squadron go to http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/usaf/200rh.htm.

For more information about the Family Readiness program in Ohio, go to http://www.ohionationalguard.com/fa/.


CMP employees Christie Sewell (left) and Shannon Hand (right) took part in the ribbon hanging. Here they decorate a downtown Oak Harbor light pole.	Sheri Judd and Mike Conrad of the CMP work together to hang ribbons in Oak Harbor . The CMP and the 200th Red Horse have worked together on many projects at Camp Perry , hanging ribbons to wish them a safe return from Iraq is a small gesture of thanks.