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.
Don't worry; Hillary will put him in his place.
What an insipid remark.....
I get the energy ...ok? I'm beyond frustrated that we have to rely on you morons to tell us how things are over there.
I want to know where the head breakers are in our whitehouse press nerds.
I want to know why someone with half a ball hasn't done the math that the american voter needs to know what's going on if the party is to survive.
That is not rocket science.
I'm at work today. Know why the Stock Market is tanking so hard today?
You don't know the half of it... he had just met with rich businessmen with an Russian oil portfolio... they're going to blame you know who next. Will dig the link up from yesterday.
Pope Benedict the Brave (Erdogan decides to meet the Pope)http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1744666/posts
Wal-Mart sales are down
THEY will be the first to shriek and hide under the desk, like effin' sKerry did on 9/11.
Mark my words.
One of the "simple" answers for the Dems. Sacrifice the Israelis! That would solve all the killing in the Middle East. Carter is beyond a moron.
60,000 Murders Since Start of the Iraq War (Civil War in America?)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1744661/posts
Well...the MSM looks at themselves as being 2 for 2 when it comes to taking out a sitting president.
They got Johnson and they got Nixon (though he helped himself on that one)...there is nothing they are hearing or seeing out there that says they can't do it again...as long as it's not Dan Rather doing it.
I don't think so.
"Miami-Dade area the worst?'
I don't think so. It is a city so it is already crowded year around. I just wish the birds would come down more year 'round - spread it out a bit. That is why Orlando more or less works. People complain about the heat but I visit my daughter in camp in upstate New York and it is far more humid feeling than down here in summer. At least we get rain most days it is really hot by noon. Florida in summer is a blast. The fishing is great.
How about a nice pic of StoneWall Jackson
Check it out:
A Moderate Muslim Identified in Tulsa?
http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/
I do agree with you about the fact that Washington people fear the MSM far too much. Reagan had plenty of PR nightmares.
For some reason, Bush got stuck on this 'new tone' and 'compassionate conservative' to such an extent that he lost some discliplin within his Administration. Even with the New Media trying to carry his water, they never carried their own. He didn't lead a conservative movement. That is where I think it all went wrong in the PR department.
But that is still no reason abandon the Iraqi people to a bloodbath.
You have no idea what you're babbling on about. Not a clue...
Let him be the nominee...he scares me less than you know who.
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