Posted on 11/27/2006 8:07:09 AM PST by MNJohnnie
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1744168/posts
Great picture of some troops homecomming posted on this thread.
Oh, he’s here!’ Strykers return to open arms
It was 32 below zero on Fort Wainwright, a 102-degree difference from Baghdad, where hundreds of soldiers with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team had been just prior to their return to Fairbanks on Saturday.
But even with foggy and icy windows on the buses that brought them in from Eielson Air Force Base, all the soldiers knew was the warm welcome of friends and family.
Before the soldiers arrived at Fort Wainwright, Col. Robert Ball, deputy commander of U.S. Army Alaska, briefed the anxious and excited crowd of family and friends.
“Go easy on them. They’re tired and a little chilly,” Ball said.
When the soldiers arrived, they lined up in formation about 50 feet in front of the crowd, with families and soldiers facing each other and loud cheers echoing throughout the large building.
“Oh, he’s here!” said Tamatha Zavodsky, jumping up to get a glimpse of her husband, Sgt. Maj. Dennis Zavodsky, in formation.
A sign on the Richardson Highway outside of Fairbanks, Alaska, greets a bus load of 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team soldiers returning from Iraq on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2006. The first plane loads of the brigade began arriving Saturday as the 3,800 troops return from their extended deployment. (AP Photo/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Sam Harrel) Ball commended the soldiers and their families in his 37-second speech, timed by one of Zavodsky’s sons. And finally, after 16 months of being 5,620 miles and a war apart, the distance between families and soldiers closed in as they rushed into each other’s arms.
Just over 600 soldiers arrived in Fairbanks between the two flights Saturday. An additional 200 were bound for Anchorage. About 3,800 soldiers with the brigade are scheduled to arrive in Fairbanks over the next 10 days. Twenty six died during the 16-month deployment.
The brigade served the first year of its tour in northern Iraq, being based out of Mosul, and was extended four months and moved to Baghdad to help combat violence there.
Reunions between families varied Saturday between seriously romantic to boisterous and joyous. Soldiers coming home to young children sank to their knees to embrace their toddlers or cradled infants they had never met. Young couples shared long, steamy kisses. Single soldiers were introduced to their buddy’s wife and kids and promised a hot meal in the next couple days before lining up for buses to their hotel rooms or barracks.
At least two-thirds of the first flight Saturday were single soldiers, many who did not have family members waiting to greet them. The Family Readiness Groups for the battalions had prepared the single soldiers’ barracks, supplying blankets, snacks, razors and shaving cream and other comforts. And even though some families couldn’t be there in person, many across the country were breathing sighs of relief as they received word their soldiers were in Alaska.
Molly Nava and a group from the brigade Support Battalion were busy on their cell phones, calling families across the country letting them know their soldier was en route to Fairbanks.
“That they are on a plane out of Iraq, that’s all they care about,” Nava said.
In some cases, single soldiers were met by the families of other soldiers.
Zavodsky, who was on hand with two sons to greet her husband, also had been tasked with finding Capt. Jerry O’Dowd, who didn’t have any family to greet him. O’Dowd’s mother in Georgia had sent up a box of cookies to give her son. O’Dowd’s girlfriend in Savannah had sent a banner welcoming him home, hanging among the dozens of signs in the building.
U.S. Army Sgt. Nick Ramsey of the 4th Battalion 23rd Infantry, kisses his wife Devan during a homecoming celebration for soldiers with the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Fort Wainwright, Alaska Saturday, Nov. 25, 2006, after serving 16 months in Iraq. (AP Photo/ Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Eric Engman) O’Dowd was pleasantly surprised when Zavodsky gave him the cookies and told him about the banner.
“Wow,” was all he said, tearing up as he looked at his mother’s handwriting on the box of cookies and walked off to find his banner.
Even families who didn’t have a soldier returning on the first flights came just to gear up for their reunions. Sue Ulibarri brought her two children Saturday. Her husband, Sgt. Maj. William Ulibarri, isn’t due in Fairbanks until later in the week.
“But this is the most exciting thing happening in Fairbanks,” she said.
Ditto!
According to News 9 in NY people are just making ends meet and cannot afford new homes and are shopping less this Christmas. This was just last night. So everything is bad this holiday season!
Yhello!
Mohammed and Abdul?
Yhello Yhello!
".....and we have accomplished exactly what in Iraq? Sure some bad guys became buzzard food? Sadaam will entertain the world by getting his stupid neck stretched .. and rightly so .... but what exactly will we offer the struggling government in Iraq and at what price? How many Americans will die for a country that cannot embrace the concept that this is the year 2006 and people simply cannot hold thousand year old grudges anymore. A new day has dawned...
Pfffftttttt!!!"
Let me educate you a little.
Did you know that in one year in Baghdad alone...500 schools were rebuilt?
That we have rebuilt nearly the entire infrastructure of the country from the ground up? This includes power generation...sanitation and water?
Did you know that we helped a farming community within sight of Baghdad finally get water to the sinks in their houses after waiting 33 YEARS for Saddam to do it?
Did you know that an Artillery Battalion commander and his troops helped rebuild a privately run school for children with Downs Syndrome and then with the help of the Kansas City Down Syndrome Society Chapter started a constant supply of books and clothing to that same school?
Of course you didn't know these things. That's because the DBM chooses to focus on the very small part of what's going on over there and totally ignore the larger picture.
If the American population knew a tenth of the good we're doing over there...your whole meme would get tossed out the window.
In case you don't realize it... obviously, our men and women in the field come here on their downtime... keep that in mind; They think it's worth it and it's their blood being spilled. It's easy to be an armchair general under the freedom the military has provided for us.
And 'our boys', want to stay because they don't want their brothers and sisters to have 'died for nothing', and they don't feel that way... at least the thirty or fourty I talk to daily.
As far as those 'inbred dolts', as you call them, they risked their lives to vote three times... and risk them everyday. They too are human beings.
Do you think the terrorists will go home and play tiddlywinks after we leave? If you think that, you haven't been paying attention to how the jihadis view slinking away with your tail between your legs.
In case you forgot... our troops hands were tied somewhat in WWII as well, I don't have to remind you of how many gave their lives there... or in the islands off Japan.
If you must lower morale, do it with letters to your elected officials or go protest... this is the last place our troops need to hear malaise.
Now i'm sure you'll come back with "I have a right to my opinion"... and you do, what besides ranting here, are you doing about it?
Rush talking about Wal-Mart bomb threat now.
Saw a thread here last night where FReepers around the nation report seeing clerks at their local Wally World dressed in full-out burqa or, at the least, in hiqab... as in my local Target.
Pfft...if traffic on Interstate 75 snd 95 this weekend is any indication of ecnonomic health, we are doing TOO well ;-)
People hear what they want to and disregard the rest.
Unfortuneately people are disregarding the important parts and only hearing the quick and easy parts.
Can't wait for Levin's commentary on the ISG ...
I can't belive there sales down
Call them the JACKASS party...it fits all of them perfectly.
LOL
LOL. I can go with that.
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