Forty-five members of the Tennessee Air Guard, scheduled to deploy for the Middle East within the next month, celebrated the opening of a training facility Thursday with a crowd of more than 200 friends and family.
The building on Bonny Oaks Drive, built to be “green” under Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design criteria, has been more than five years in the making, and airmen in 241st Engineering Installation Squadron said its unveiling was a great sendoff.
“It allows us to do our job better,” said Staff Sgt. Caleb Hargroves, who will deploy for the second time since 2008 for a six-month operation. “It opens up more potential.”
His wife, Brittany, who hugged him after the ceremony, said she was proud of her husband and his unit’s new base of operations. But she’d rather he were staying there than traveling overseas.
“I’ll miss him,” she said.