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HAVELOCK, N.C. – About 100 civilian workers at the Fleet Readiness Center at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point received special recognition from the Department of Defense.

The department awarded them the Global War on Terrorism Medal, which is usually reserved for members of the military.

“It takes a significant amount of burden off the active duty forces to have these civilian volunteers over there doing some of the heavy maintenance that they’re just not capable of doing,” Col. David Smith said.

For the past several years, aircraft maintenance workers have been volunteering to head into combat zones to fix damaged planes for the Marine Corps.

“I’ve seen bullet holes in aircraft, then we had landing mishaps where main landing gear burned up and the tire burned up and damaged the F-18,” Nathaniel Johnson, one of the FRC members, said.

Only 58 of the 102 honorees were at the ceremony Friday. Many of the others were overseas.

The FRC workers that deploy usually stay between 90 and 180 days. Most are sent to various locations in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Kuwait.