82nd Airborne soldiers return to Ft. Liberty after 9-month deployment to Europe

FORT LIBERTY (WTVD) -- The 82nd Airborne Division celebrated its homecoming from a nine-month deployment to Eastern Europe Thursday morning at Fort Liberty.

The division said this mission was important for training NATO allies in Eastern Europe tactics for combat. They also said it was important for the US to have a presence in the Black Sea region to discourage attacks from Russia.

"Working together with other partner allies overseas, we're really focused on how they train, how we can enhance their training, and what kind of improvements they can--what kind of improvements we see we can place on them, as well as what we can get and learn from their training," said Staff Sgt. Julius Harris of the 82nd Airborne Division.

The 82nd Airborne said about 200 service members deployed to Europe in December.

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Servicemembers worked with allies in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia. The division's leadership said they also worked on refining their own warfighting abilities.

"There's nothing easy about what we do. This is a hard lifestyle. It's the path less traveled. But I think what's extraordinary about it is we continue to do it and we do it together," said Maj. Gen. James P. Work.

Harris said each deployment gets easier with time, but that he's grateful to be reunited with his family.

"It was undescribable. It was just nice to see them being away for so long. Like I said, it can be a little daunting, but reuniting it always makes the heart grow fonder. So I'm just proud to be back," he said.

The 82nd Airborne said it is resetting its operations now that it has returned to its headquarters at Fort Liberty. That means it's resuming its posture to be able to respond to enemy forces anywhere around the world within hours.