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.
Yep, just think... if we were lucky, we could have picked up Legionnaires as well. /s
Maybe so but it was just an idea anyway
It's cool.
How you doon?
Had to munch on Extra Sharp Cheddar this weekend... leftover crumbles, compared to that daily American I know and love.
Going through GOOBERMINT cheese withdrawls here as well.....
Yes, I'm looking forward to The Great One, as well! He is picking up a station in Huntsville today to go along with the Atlanta station he picked up last week!
Me too. He said he has 46 folks there. Must have been great!
I mentioned on Thanksgiving that I had only 30 family members here, and some FReeper here found that rather difficult to imagine.
LOL.
I was feeling somewhat sorry for the little fellow. Maybe he had a small family or no family at all, or maybe he lived in a trailer with few accoutrements, unable to deal with thirty people as guests.
Oh well.
Come on Rush, tell us about your Thanksgiving.
Snack on some leftover cheese! LOL!
LOL!
Neither does Sandra Day O' Conner and Vernon Jordan.
s/
CC, did you see the old video of Baker someone posted early this a.m.? I'll look for it.
I enjoy leftover cheese each morning (except when the GREAT ONE was off the day before)!
HEY RUSH, I WANT TO HAVE YOUR CHIL'REN, CAN YOU SPREAD THAT HAPPINESS AROUND?
lol
Entertained 24 for appetizers...16 stayed for dinner.
Fun, but thank goodness all good things come to an end.
Outstanding...
If that's what you believe ... far be it from me to dissuade you from the train wreck that awaits you.
When you can comprehend something other than nuance between Monday Night Football, WWF wrestling and your cousin ... get back to me.
The only tid bit of information I was attmeping to drop in that empty head of yours is that arab muslems aren't like the red haired neighbors next door. Their concept of time and justice aren't even in the same ballpark as yours. What they value is foreign to us. Don't expect them to embrace democracy as if it were a new change of clothing. It rubs against their dna.
They have generations that despise America and the west for meddling in their affairs. That image don't wash away so easily....and to assume they will is just childish...and in this case ... deadly.
No i did not.
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