First Sgt. James Ballie takes a break after riding his favorite Harley. He and the rest of Bravo Company, 193rd Aviation (Forward One) left for Afghanistan on Aug. 10. They are set to return home Wednesday morning.
Harley awaits returning
GuardsmanSixty isle Army Guard troops return
from Afghanistan next week
James Ballie hopes to be astride his Harley-Davidson Electraglide Classic motorcycle with his wife on May 23, taking his first spin around the islands since serving in Afghanistan for the last nine months.
Ballie, 53, is the first sergeant of Bravo Company, 193rd Aviation (Forward One), which left Wheeler Army Air Field on Aug. 10 and will be returning with 59 other soldiers early Wednesday morning. He has told his wife, Kathy, that the deployment, his first since the Vietnam War, has been "a real eye-opener."
"He had to apply all he has learned over all these years," she said. "It was different from Vietnam, where he was first a helicopter mechanic and later a door gunner. This time, he was in a leadership position."
Ballie, who has been in the military for 33 years, was among the 60 Hawaii Army National Guard aviators and mechanics who were stationed in Kandahar. They were replaced by other members from Bravo Company, who left Wheeler on May 5. The unit is commanded by Maj. Margaret Rains.
The Hawaii unit was augmented with mechanics from the Idaho National Guard whose job was to maintain the attack AH-64 Apache helicopters from New Mexico. They also serviced Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters.
For the past nine months, Kathy Ballie has washed and polished her husband's Harley.
"I know he plans to change the seat and make some other changes on it before he takes it out," she said.
Before James Ballie deployed in August, his joy would be to ride around the island with members of the bike club, the Honolulu Hogs, every Sunday.
"There would be anywhere from eight to 18 of us on the ride," his wife said.
Kathy Ballie, who also served in the Hawaii Army National Guard for 23 years, said "it was finally his time to go," noting that she had been sent overseas twice.
According to the 193rd Aviation, "the working conditions (in Kandahar) were good and the living conditions adequate," she said.
Although the hours were long, she said, the Hawaii citizen soldiers used to get together every Sunday.
"They would potluck all the goodies they got from home," she said. "Everyone used to come around."
So she added to the potlucks by sending her husband saimin, dried shrimp and nori.
"Things like the dried shrimp and the nori along with his motorcycle magazines are what made his world happy," she said.
