'Welcome home!' Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visits troops at Fort Bragg

The commander of Fort Bragg and the 18th Airborne Corps had a simple greeting for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin when he arrived on post-Tuesday.

“Welcome home,” Lt. Gen. Christopher T. Donahue said as Austin stepped out of a black SUV in front of the corps’ headquarters building.

Donahue’s words were appropriate. Austin, a retired four-star Army general, served at Fort Bragg numerous times.

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Austin held the position Donahue now holds from 2006 to 2009. He also commanded a company, a battalion, and a brigade in Fort Bragg’s 82nd Airborne Division.

Austin was at Fort Bragg on Tuesday to meet with soldiers from the 18th Airborne Corps who recently returned from nine months of duty in Germany. About 300 soldiers from the unit came back to the post last month.

The troops were sent to Germany in February on short notice to support NATO and assure other European nations as Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine. They were among about 20,000 troops who were sent to Europe, including about 3,000 paratroopers from the 82nd.

Austin was expected to meet with Donahue before talking to soldiers and their families. Just before Austin went into the headquarters, he shook hands with Col. Ken Cole, the 18th Airborne Corps chief of staff; Lt. Col. Ryan Bell, Donahue’s executive officer; and Maj. Randall Davis, who serves as Donahue’s aide-de-camp.

Austin’s meeting with soldiers and their families was closed to the press, but two of them — Maj. Nicole Collins and Staff Sgt. Thomas Tran — said before the meeting that it was an honor to serve on the deployment and to meet the defense secretary.

Collins, aviation deputy director for the 18th Airborne Corps, is a pilot who flies CH-47 Chinook helicopters. She came back to Fort Bragg in August.

“Our initial mission of assuring and deterring was an excellent opportunity to participate in something monumental,” she said.

Tran, a facilities engineer for the 18th Airborne Corps, said he appreciated serving with troops from NATO countries.

“It was nice to learn the way they function, the way they operated day-to-day,” he said.

Tran said it was difficult to be away from his two children, who are four and six years old.

“Missing their growth in the summer was definitely a challenge for me,” he said.

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Tran said he was grateful to his wife, Margaret, for keeping the household running while he was deployed.

“I know if the roles were reversed, I couldn’t do it,” he said.

Margaret Tran took the praise in stride.

“We’re a team,” she said.

Staff writer Steve DeVane can be reached at sdevane@fayobserver.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fort Bragg commander welcomes Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to post