Fairfax County Search and Rescue Team Returns from Nepal

PHOTOS of Saturday morning welcome home for Fairfax County fire and rescue team members by Captain Randy Bittinger, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue via Facebook

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Friends and family gathered early Saturday in Fairfax County to welcome home the members of the county search and rescue team who traveled to Nepal to help after an earthquake struck the area. A 7.9 earthquake hit April 25 and left nearly 8,500 dead.

Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (R-10th) and other officials were there to welcome them home, as was a group of Nepalese-Americans.

Fairfax County Fire Chief Richard Bowers read a message of gratitude and pride from Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-11th) to the team members and their families. Because he was on official business representing the U.S. Congress at NATO meetings in Budapest, Connolly was unable to attend.

Connolly has a long relationship with the Fairfax County first responders dating to his service as a county supervisor when his office was located in a fire station.

Here’s his letter to the team:

U.S. House Of Representatives

May 15, 2015

Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department
Urban Search and Rescue Section
14725H Flint Lee Road
Chantilly, VA 20151

To the Returning Members of Fairfax County USAID VA-TF1/USA1:

Although I cannot personally be with you upon your return from Nepal because I am in Budapest representing the U.S. Congress at the quarterly NATO Parliamentary Assembly meetings, I want to offer my sincere congratulations to all of you on a job well done.

Once again, each of you who serve on this Fairfax County elite urban search and rescue team has gone far above and beyond the call of duty to save lives of innocent victims while risking your own in extraordinarily treacherous conditions halfway across the globe. While many of you will tell your friends and the media that you were just doing your job, I want to assure you that there are people here, and certainly in Nepal, who believe the men and women of Virginia Task Force 1 are miracle workers.

I also want to thank your families for the tremendous sacrifices they endure when you are on a mission of mercy. It is not easy for your spouses, children, and loved ones here at home, knowing you are placing yourselves in jeopardy, even if it is for the greater good.

I hope your families and your colleagues here in Fairfax will allow me to share a small piece of the pride they feel for all you have accomplished during your two weeks in Nepal. Through your specialized skills and your commitment to saving lives, you are sterling ambassadors of goodwill for our county, our Commonwealth, and our nation.

And to the victims of the Nepal earthquake and other disasters around the globe you have responded to over the last three decades, you are Godsends. Welcome home and God bless!

Sincerely,

s// GERRY

Gerald E. Connolly
Member of Congress
11th District of Virginia