Naval Station Norfolk welcomed home the "Dusty Dogs" of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 7 (HSC-7) Saturday afternoon. They were the last of the nine squadrons of the Carrier Air Wing 3 to return to waiting families. The return follows a deployment with Carrier Strike Group 2, Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group to the Naval Forces Central area of operations.
News 3 caught up with a crowd full of proud spouses, children, friends and parents at the homecoming.
Mary Cartwright tells News 3 about her son Sam who's with HSC-7 and the path that led him to the military.
"From the time he could fly a Cherrio as a baby he wanted to fly," smiled Cartwright.
Cartwright and the others gathered have been there as those dreams of flight took loved ones far away for the past nearly nine months.
"It has been a long one," said Kelly Gawne as she waited for her brother Ryan.
Of course, everyone's eager to be reunited for lots of reasons.
"All the routines we're used to doing ourselves we get to include daddy now," smiled Kerry Brady who was waiting for her loved one.
"[My brother's] wife is pregnant so he came just in time for little baby G to get here," added Gawne.
"When he left the baby couldn't even lift his head," said Zaria Mcafee as she waited for husband Eric.
"This is the first time we've ever seen him come in, so we're very excited," said Cartwright.
The day was punctuated with flags, a flyover and many cheers. The men and women of the "Dusty Dogs" Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron Seven were finally home.
"I'm just happy to be reunited with my family," said Eric Baker, HSC-7.
CDR Patrick Dunn filled News 3 in on the group's combat deployment in the Red Sea where they fought Houthi militant threats among other things.
"The people are what I am so proud of. The number of challenges they would face from things that wouldn't go right the first time, things they'd have to rework and try again and every day no matter what their job was from all the way down at the bottom of the ship working the engine plan to all the way in the air to flying and doing their job in the air, every last person was part of that team every day and they have 110 percent and it was incredible," said CDR Patrick Dunn, HSC-7.
Glad for a safe return, they're now looking forward to the future.
"[We'll be] trying to make up for the lost time from the last nine months," Dunn looked to his family. "It is so good to be back home and to see my own family for sure, and also the families of all my sailors out here. It is wonderful and heartwarming."
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