Louisiana Army National Guard Lt. Col. John Trevino received a hero’s welcome home Saturday during a dinner at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4222 and Auxiliary center in Morgan City.
Trevino returned Aug. 22 from a nine-month deployment in Iraq and was honored with words of praise. His deployment was part of Operation Inherent Resolve. His deployment began in early December, and he was stationed at Al Asad Airbase.
A member of the 139 Regional Support Group, which is based out of Jackson Barracks in New Orleans, Trevino served as executive officer at Al Asad Airbase.
In Iraq, he is duties were to “run base life support” at Al Assad, Erbil and Taji Military Complex.
At Al Asad, he said, about 50 soldiers took care of the base life support, which included providing city services like water, sewage and electrical needs and ensuring security was provided. Trevino said 3,000 to 4,000 people were on base at any moment.
He also helped take care of contracts.
Trevino described the time at Al Asad as “just trying to be comfortable in an uncomfortable environment.”
However, Trevino said he thought the military was “relatively safe” where they were.
Trevino, who has served his country for 28 years, was on his second deployment after serving in Kuwait in 2011-2012 in Operation Enduring Freedom. During that time, the military forces were being drawn down from Iraq.
The enemy has changed from Al-Qaida to ISIS. Trevino said the enemy is not as easily recognizable now as in the past.
“Challenging” was how Trevino described his last deployment.
“I say challenging in that I’m not the resilient spring chicken that I was before. I’m wiser up here,” he said, pointing to his head, “but the body is almost 52 (years old).”
However, he didn’t rule out future service overseas.
“If you ask my wife, she’d probably say hopefully never, but kind of like (St. Mary Parish Councilman) Patrick (Hebert) said a little bit earlier, I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’m not going out looking for anything, but depending on if I’m asked to step up and if there’s a need for me, then I can help out.”