Posted on 08/02/2004 2:24:46 PM PDT by COBOL2Java
Maj. Gen. Galan B. Jackman, commanding general of the Military District of Washington, welcomes Spc. Eric M. McKeeby as the Bravo Company Soldier and photojournalist arrives with his unit from a seven-month Horn of Africa deployment.
photo by Spc. Jeremy Kern
Djibouti is a small, impoverished country in the horn of Africa, formerly known as the Territory of the Afars and Issas. The Afars are nomads and the Somali-speaking Issas make up the bulk of the inhabitants.
The Old Guard's Bravo Company went there seven months ago to help train the military and to engage in numerous humanitarian tasks. Sunday morning the first 30-man contingent of the company flew into Andrews Air Force Base.
Family members waited anxiously at Fort Myer's historic Conmy Hall to greet their arriving Soldiers.
Pfc. Mary Stolmeier has missed her first two wedding anniversaries with husband Spc. Benjamin. The first was because she attended basic training at Fort Jackson but the second, last May, her husband was deployed to the Horn.
The private said the separation was difficult at first, but it has made the couple better appreciate their marriage and their job. "When we do get to spend time together it's a lot more precious," she said. "We're going on leave together to a cabin in West Virginia and have a nice family outing."
First Lt. Jesse J. Ceja Jr.'s son, Jesse III, was only a couple of weeks old when his dad left. Sunday Ceja returned to find a strapping 8-month old boy.
"He's huge," the lieutenant said. "He looks nothing like when I left. I was kind of nervous to see him. I didn't think he'd recognize me."
"We sent him [Jesse] a lot of pictures," she said. "And we showed him his daddy's picture every day. It was hard. I had a lot of help."
Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard A. Cody came to Conmy Hall to welcome the men back.
"I was here when we sent them off," Cody said. "It's been a great deployment. It took great leadership to bring all these folks home safe. They're all infantrymen, mostly; All the company commanders are hand picked. They train as infantry. Outstanding reports. A great infantry company."
Sgt. Rudolph Burgherr III served on his first combat deployment.
Burgherr told how he and his fellow Soldiers had to look on the map to find the country before deployment.
"It was an eye opener," he said. "Instead of cars on the side of the road there were goats. Coming back from the range one day, we saw a poor little kid, maybe 7 years old, in tattered clothes. He stood at attention and saluted us. We were all joking before, then we had tears in our eyes."
Spc. James Costello served for the first time overseas.
"The poverty level is so high," Costello said. "Piles of trash were 10 feet high. There seemed to be a lot of young people. I saw lots of smiles. It was a good experience. I volunteered at an orphanage on Christmas Day. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. It felt real good."
I was TDY to Djibouti back in 1982. It was a total backwater then, and it was crawling with French Foreign Legionnaires and regular army troops. It is an exceptionally fine harbor, and it was secure. U S warships used to put in there to take on water, and allow us to use their Ships Stores. The harbor of Aden is rather close by, but for years, Aden had been a hotbed of terrorism. I'd like to know what IDIOT told the USS Cole to put into Aden, and NOT Djibouti. Could her initials have been MA?
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