Posted on 12/19/2005 4:23:15 PM PST by SandRat
FORT HUACHUCA — Exodus has begun, but unlike the Israelites of old who left Egypt, those who are departing this southern Army post en mass will be back.
Every year soldiers going through military training at the fort get a holiday break to spend Christmas and New Year’s with families and friends.
And, for the first time, soldiers who are in their initial military occupational specialty training have been directed to wear their uniforms home.
The head of the Army Accessions Command, the organization responsible for recruiting soldiers, said because the United States is a nation at war, having soldiers who are in initial training wearing the uniform showcases the warrior ethos.
It is not only initial-entry training soldiers at Fort Huachuca who are heading home for the holidays, every training school under the Training and Doctrine Command is doing the same thing.
This year the main departure from Fort Huachuca began on Sunday, with smaller groups to leave today and Tuesday. The nearly 1,700 soldiers will return on Jan. 1 and 2.
Pvt. Patrick Reutter headed to his Indianapolis home to celebrate Christmas with his parents, eight brothers and five sisters.
Pfc. Jonathan Prendergast flew to Massachusetts, where he will be met and taken to his North Andover house for the holidays.
Sgt. Brandon Barry had a longer flight ahead of him as he is heading for England to spend the time with his pregnant soldier wife, Staff Sgt. Susan Barry.
One soldier told a civilian at the Tucson International Airport, “We’re being kicked out of Fort Huachuca.”
He then laughed and told the man it was Exodus, a time to forget about training and relax before returning.
“Oh,” the man remarked, “I wondered why there were so many soldiers in the terminal.”
While the break is primarily a time to relax, soldiers are being asked to be temporary recruiters to see whether anyone is interested in joining the Army.
Each one was given five “Call to Duty” cards to hand out. The soldiers were also asked to take an interested person to a recruiting office. Last year, the Army failed to meet its enlistment goal.
First Sgt. Ramon Prieto, the senior noncommissioned officer of Company F, 309th Military Intelligence Battalion, said when he was on recruiting duty, having someone who was a friend bring in a potential recruit was usually successful.
For Reutter, Prendergast and Barry, the day started with them showing up at the post’s Eifler Fitness Center.
It was a full-blown military operation. While the buses were paid for by the government, the soldiers’ airline tickets were on their own dime.
Groups were broken down, based on times their flights were to leave the Tucson airport. Every hour on the hour, from 1 a.m. until 1 p.m. Sunday, charter buses left the fort. As one group left other soldiers filed into the gym to wait for their turn to leave.
Sitting at a table, with a thick roster showing with the soldiers’ names, their departure flight numbers and time and return flights.
As soldiers went past Sgt. Michael Pratt, they called out their names and rapidly he would go through alphabetically arranged roster check off the GI’s name and say “move on.”
Assigned to Company A, 309th Military Intelligence Battalion, Pratt moved the line quickly. Once done with Pratt, the soldiers lined up their luggage and took a seat in the bleachers.
A drill sergeant yelled for the troops to count off.
One, two, three, and as numbers increased “three and zero” one soldier said. “Four and one,” said another.
Sometime during the processing, a number would be called out and soldiers with that number or below would pick up their luggage, march outside, grab a sack meal and board a bus.
One soldier did not want the meal, but a drill sergeant looked at her and said, “Take one,” in an authoritative tone that only drill sergeants use. She did.
Prieto said how the Army makes sure soldiers are taken care of when it comes to major holiday moves is different from when he went through an Army school.
In 1983 he was attending school at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana, and when it came to the break, he purchased a bus ticket to Chicago, which was his home, and left.
Being organized is a lot better for everyone Prieto said. The 309th is responsible for the departure from the post, and the 305th Military Intelligence Battalion’s cadre will take care of meeting returning soldiers at the Tucson airport and getting them back to the fort after the first of the year.
A special area of the airport terminal was made available for the soldiers. Fruit and other edibles were available, provided by veterans’ organizations in Tucson.
A nearby coffee-and-snack bar did a booming business. Civilians approached soldiers, many just to shake their hands and sometimes to engage in short conversations.
Reutter said he did some of his holiday shopping at the Sierra Vista Mall.
Saying he purchased a number of glass figurines, the soldier said his Christmas shopping is not done.
At least, unlike another soldier, he wasn’t taking home a Christmas for his mother.
Another soldier said his luggage was full of dirty laundry for his mom to wash.
Ah, kids.
Reutter, like Prendergast and Barry, is training to be an intelligence analyst.
The 19-year-old Reutter said he is halfway through his training.
It will good to see his family, he said. His oldest sibling is 23, and the youngest not yet a year.
Saying he comes from a military family — his father retired from the Air Force, his mother served in the Air Force, and he has an aunt and uncle who have served in the Navy — Reutter said he knows a few friends who may want to enlist in the Army.
But, he admitted his first thoughts will be sharing time with his family.
“I love to cook and that’s one of the first things I’m going to do when I get home,” he said.
Standing in front of a stove is relaxing, he said.
As for Army field chow, Reutter said heating up meals-ready-to-eat does not count as cooking.
What he can’t wait for is sitting down at Christmas to turkey, ham, corn-on-the-cob, sweet potato casserole and desserts.
As anxious as he is to be with his family, his mom apparently can’t wait for him to land at the Indianapolis airport.
Twice he was on his cell phone talking to her.
“She still thinks I’m a kid,” he said. “She wants me to keep her informed where I’m at on my way home.”
While Reutter was traveling with many bags, Prendergast had only one.
With only a carry-on, he said, “I’m traveling light.”
He has plenty of civilian clothes at home.
Even before showing up around 5 a.m. Sunday to process at the fitness center, the soldiers had to go through a safety briefing on Saturday.
“We were told to stay out of trouble,” Prendergast said.
As he spoke at the Tucson airport, he looked at his watch.
With only a few minutes to go before he had to go to the check-in counter, the 18-year-old said he has an older brother who is in his third year of college but he doubts he is interested in the Army right now.
But he does know some high school friends who might be thinking about enlisting.
Thinking about Christmas at home, Prendergast said here is one gift he wants and that is a “Boston Bruins #1 Mitt.”
Although the hockey team is not No. 1 in wins, it still is his team.
He waved and walked off to check in for his flight, knowing he would be home in Massachusetts late Sunday afternoon.
On the other hand, Barry has a much longer flight.
As he is not an initial entry training soldier, he was traveling in civilian clothes.
For him and his wife, the holidays will be fast-paced.
A time to enjoy being together as they make arrangements for her to return to Fort Huachuca with him.
Their first child is due in early February, and she will be taking leave to come to Arizona to have the baby, Barry said.
The Army allows a pregnant soldier to decided where she wants to give birth and the Barrys have chosen the Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center.
He has an apartment in Sierra Vista where they will live, as he completes his reclassification training. His previous Army job was a Bradley linebacker crew member and no, he said, “that had nothing to do with football.”
It was shortly after they married in early May and after his wife became pregnant that Barry had to leave her in England to come to Fort Huachuca.
But, after he graduates in March he will leave for a year assignment in South Korea.
He will go to England with his wife and child, help them get settled and then leave for his assignment.
“I’m going to miss all the firsts,” Barry said of not seeing his child’s first words, steps, birthday and Christmas.
As more soldiers from Fort Huachuca arrived at the Tucson airport, those who had come earlier started moving out, first to check in, then to go through security before heading to the gate to board the plane that would fly them home.
High five’s, hugs, words of goodbye, wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Years were exchanged.
One can only imagine the stories — many of them probably GI tall tales in oneupmanship contests — they will tell each other when they come back after the reverse Exodus.
What a great piece. I really wish I was not (only barely) overage to join our finest. It would be as purposeful a calling as anything else I could think of in life.
MI ping!!!!!
They wont let me back in either.
Sigh.
God bless them and keep them safe in their travels.
And I hope every idiot that decides it is a good idea to spit on them, gets the hell beat out of themselves by my fellow civilian citizens.
Done thoroughly but discretely, of course.
listen CHG - I still get carded when I buy a sixpack - so lets keep our secret among friends, yes?????
you have a wonderful way of expressing yourself!!! God Bless YOU!!!
How times change. In MY war (Vietnam), we were being told NOT to wear our uniforms due to the number of attacks on servicemen and women by "civilians".
God Bless my MI Brothers
Merry Christmas
I posed this request to my sister who travels a lot 2 years ago but I suspect it went in one ear and out another. For people who have never been in the military it is impossible to convey to them what it is like to have to survive on military pay and have to book last minute flights for personal leaves granted at the last minute.
I was so proud to wear my uniform home on leave. And so disappointed when, for security reasons, we were told not to wear them any more.
I know. It feels so right, to be able to walk down the street, be at the park, at the airport, and see service members proudly wearing their uniforms in public again and appreciated by the folks around them.
BTTT
God Bless You for your thoughfulness.
I know the family struggles each time the 'boys' try to come home. This year, for the first time in 3 years, we'll get all 3 boys home for Christmas. One will be driving up from South Carolina, the other two caught flights back to the mainland and are having to Greyhound for the last leg of the journey home. The flights were just too expensive when not traveling to a major hub. They'll have to take Greyhound back to the major hub and flyout too. We lose two days with them, but we're grateful to be able to celebrate this Christmas with them.
We're really looking forward to having pictures done with all 3 in their dress blues. ;-)
It's just you. The Rangers wear a different color beret now. I find it funny the Army wears berets... but I went in in the green suited, baseball cap era.
In my opinion, any military personnel awaiting flights should be given first priority over any other individual flying but since I'm not in charge of the world it is unlikely anything is going to change.
Wow, all the boys home in their Blues, good for you! Merry Christmas and God bless all of you......
5.56mm
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