Operation Iraqi Freedom pilot continues to serve as Oswego deputy police chief

Oswego Police Deputy Chief Shane Yackley spent his 27th birthday flying into Kuwait as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“Here I am, 20 years later,” said Yackley, the department’s deputy chief of support services. “It’s one of my most memorable birthdays.”

Yackley spent about 10 months in Iraq. These days, the 47-year-old Oswego resident is serving the community he lives in.

He has been with the Oswego Police Department since 2007. Yackley was promoted to his current position in 2023.

Yackley began his law enforcement career in 2006 with the Warrenville Police Department after returning home from Iraq.

He enlisted in the Illinois Army National Guard in 1995, when he was still a high school student at Marmion Academy in Aurora. Yackley is a 1996 Marmion Academy graduate.

“I did their split-option program, where I was able to attend basic training between my junior and senior year,” Yackley said. “That’s actually where I first became interested in the military.”

In 2002, he graduated as a UH-60 Blackhawk pilot and married his wife, Melissa. In late 2003, he received federal orders to deploy to Iraq as a platoon leader in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom II and was assigned to B Company 1/106th Aviation Regiment.

While in Iraq, he was stationed at Balad Airbase in the middle of the Sunni Triangle and flew almost 400 hours of combat missions and air assaults across the country. He returned home in 2005.

“Sometimes you would use the Blackhawk helicopters to basically do rapid insertions of troops, moving people through bullets, water, that kind of thing,” Yackley said. “You would group together a half-dozen Blackhawk helicopters and have the ability to put several dozen people on the ground very, very quickly.”

They also would pick up troops to get them out of harm’s way. In doing so, Yackley himself was a target.

“Everyone took fire at some point that year,” he said.

Fortunately, the helicopters were moving too fast for the firepower to cause much damage.

“Typically, you’d be struck toward the end of the tail boom, if you were hit, which is very fortunate for us,” Yackley said.

Unfortunately, Yackley sometimes had to pick up soldiers who had been killed in an ambush as part of his duties.

“That certainly had an emotional toll,” he said.

He noted that many Iraqi citizens appreciated their efforts while they were there.

“I would say that 80% to 85% of them were very, very friendly,” Yackley said. “When you’d fly overhead, they would often pick up their children and hold them over their heads. The kids would kind of try and run along and follow your path. Overall, the Iraqi public was very supportive.”

Becoming a police officer proved to be a great match for the training Yackley received while in the military.

“For never having planned on being a police officer, it’s just been a great experience,” he said. “It’s a great career. It’s something I can find meaning and value in, and in kind of giving back to the community.”

Oswego Police Chief Jason Bastin said Yackley has been a great asset to the police department.

“Over the course of his career, Shane’s done quite a bit,” he said. “He’s been one of our school resource officers, he’s been a detective sergeant overseeing investigations, and he started up our drone program.”

The Oswego Police Department uses drones for many things, such as trying to find a missing child or an elderly person. Drones also are used to survey an area before a special event.

Yackley has been involved in organizing the department’s annual National Night Out event. National Night Out, an annual event started in 1984, is designed to heighten crime-prevention awareness and generate support for local anti-crime programs.

“That’s a really good place for the police and the public to get together,” Bastin said.

As a deputy chief, Yackley also is in charge of the department’s day-to-day operations to make sure things are being done properly.

“Shane’s contributed a lot to our department,” Bastin said.