71 More home in time for Christmas, WOO-HOO!!!!
Posted on 12/23/2005 7:25:15 AM PST by SandRat
Army Staff Sgt. Evenson Turner used to tote an M-16 rifle in the Middle East. Now, he's toting a diaper bag in Tucson.
The citizen soldier — father of an infant son he hadn't seen since birth — stepped back into his family's arms Thursday after a 15-month deployment.
"It feels good to be a dad again," said Turner, one of 71 local National Guard members whose pre-holiday return drew cheering parents, sobbing spouses and cooing babies to the Valencia Armory, 5500 E. Valencia Road.
Members of the 2nd Battalion, 180th Field Artillery had been away since October 2004, some in Iraq, others in Qatar or Kuwait. Many worked as military police officers, escorting convoys and protecting installations.
Turner's wife, Ruth, was three months' pregnant with son Kalil, now 8 months old, when her spouse shipped out. The couple also has a 9-year-old boy named Evenson. Ruth, 25, sighed with relief at the sight of her husband Thursday.
"It was awful with two kids and no husband," she said. Spc. Robert Norris, 32, a city of Tucson recreation coordinator when he's not in uniform, also is easing back into the parenting saddle.
His 21-month-old son, Robby, was 6 months old when Norris went to war. "My wife says I owe her a lot of diaper changes," Norris joked as he cradled the tot, who wore a pint-sized desert camouflage uniform to the homecoming.
Natasha Norris, 27, trembled and sobbed as she waited for her husband to step off a bus in the armory parking lot.
When he wrapped his arms around her for the first time in months, she wept long and hard into his camouflage-covered shoulder, stroking his head as she cried. "It was just overwhelming, the thought that it was finally over and he was home safe," Natasha Norris said afterward.
"My husband is my soulmate, so it broke my heart when he left."
A Sahuarita family had two reasons to be happy: A pair of family members returned.
Sgt. Jesse Leal, 32, and his brother-in-law, Sgt. Ismael Martinez, also 32, were greeted by a horde of relatives holding red, white and blue balloons and "Welcome Home" signs.
"My daughters have been counting the minutes," said Leal's wife, Dorothy, 34, referring to 7-year-old Melina and 5-year-old Renae.
The Leal clan planned to spend the evening around the kitchen table, feasting on homemade tacos.
The Turners intended to shut off their cell phones and check into a swank hotel "for some alone time without the children," Ruth Turner said.
The Norrises scheduled a quiet evening of getting reacquainted and doting on their toddler, and some holiday visiting with loved ones.
Robert Norris said the separation has given him a new appreciation for his wife and child. "You don't realize how much you miss all the little things, like holding hands," he said.
"It seemed like an eternity without them."
"You don't realize how much you miss all the little things, like holding hands. It seemed like an eternity without them."
● Contact reporter Carol Ann Alaimo at 573-4138 or calaimo@azstarnet.com.
Wonderful news. Thanks for the ping.
It is such a blessing to be home for christmas, but I can't forget the ones who are over there now where I was last year at this time......May God Bless them all!
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Welcome home troops....God Bless each and everyone of you.
Be sure to post the story from the papers as soon as you can with a photo link of course. If you can, let them know that we at FR wish them a Very Merry Christmas and WELCOME HOME!
Spc. Jonathan Smith gives a long-awaited embrace to daughter Giana, 4, after returning from a 15-month deployment in the Middle East with the 2nd Battalion, 180th Field Artillery unit of the Arizona National Guard.
Photos by Chris Richards / Arizona Daily Star
When returning troops stop in at my favorite watering hole across the street from Ft. Eustis, I usually buy them a beer. This bunch was NG and headed straight home.
Thank you for serving our country.
WELCOME HOME!
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