Air Force Senior Airman Shaun D. Chauta is currently deployed overseas at a forward operating location in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Operation Iraqi Freedom is the official name given to military operations involving members of the U.S. armed forces and coalition forces participating in efforts to free and secure Iraq. Mission objectives focus on force protection, peacekeeping, stabilization, security and counter-insurgency operations as the Iraqi transitional governing bodies assume full sovereign powers to govern the peoples of Iraq.

Members from all branches of the U.S. military and multinational forces are also assisting in rebuilding Iraq's economic and governmental infrastructure, and training and preparing Iraqi military and security forces to assume full authority and responsibility in defending and preserving Iraq's sovereignty and independence as a democracy.

The airman is an avionics test station component journeyman regularly assigned to the 31st Maintenance Squadron, Aviano Air Base, Italy.

He is the son of Al Chauta of Valley Bluff Drive, Fayetteville, Ga., and Pamela Swyers of Bartow Drive, Dacula, Ga.

Chauta is a 2001 graduate of Fayette County High School, Fayetteville.