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.
LOL
I wasn't looking!
MSM Official Source a Fraud re: Sunnis set aflame
(But we knew that already... didn't we)
http://www.floppingaces.net/2006/11/25/getting-the-news-from-the-enemies-mouth/
Sorry it had to come to this.
It's official... Chuck Norris said say Merry Christmas
Done.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53112
We need three more degrees for an official conspiracy. /s
....and has it ever crossed your mind that they have watch American and western arms dealers arming their enemies? How do you think that looks to them as we then come in as their liberators? Shocking you say? We have been involved every little defacto skirmish in the middle east for years and years and years.
They trust us as far as they can dig up the relatives our guns have planted.
Again ..... for those just tuning in. I'm all for killing the bad guys. But for the most part, we Americans have not been paying attention to what previous administrations have been doing in the middle east.
They see us as playing both sides ....
In a culture that takes pride in keeping track who killed which of their relatives over the centuries ... that can be a real pain in the arse when trying to broker peace.
Talk about committed? We don't know that kind of commitment over here. We get over things too quickly...forgive our neighbors as we want to be forgiven.
To forgive over there is to spit on the memory of the dead.
Until Islam undergoes some sort of reformation, we are kidding ourselves if we think we can plant real honest to God secular democracy in Iraq.
Good for him.
I'm trying to decide when to put out the Nativity Scene.
Any suggestions?
See he played 'You Sexy Thang' to bumper out... I think he got the message. /s
They enjoy the freedom America has provided them on the one hand..... but chock at the image that gives to their not-so-liberated neighbors. No one wants to be told they are a puppet of the U.S..
Wow.............. hope you had a good time.
By the way, this last hour of Rush's about "lots of money and happiness" -- "lots of stuff doesn't make you happy" was totally worthless. Who didn't know that.
This guy wastes a heck of a lot of time.
Choke ... that is .....
sigh
Put it out now but don't put baby Jesus out till Christmas. That is what my Grandfather always insisted.
I'm setting up Saturday, since it's the day before Advent;
My relatives do it right after Thanksgiving.
All you are saying is that we should leave because the Iraqis and Muslims in general aren't worth giving a chance.
You are wrong, and dangerously wrong. If there is no hope for Iraq, there is no hope for us. If this doesn't work, what will? We cannot kill 1,500,000,000 Muslims.
Most people try to hide their ignorance but NOT you. No your race around the web screaming "I am a complete idiot who knows nothing about these topics but arrogantly waste my time screaming opinions on topics I know nothing about to people who know way way way more about the issue". After you display of total ignorance here today do you think ANYTHING you ever say on Free Republic is going to be taken seriously by anyone? What a complete waste of your time!
You managed to go the whole thread, waste three hours of your life, arrogantly screaming your ignorance and emotional hysteria to a whole hundreds of people who know WAY more about Iraq then YOU ever will. Way to go. Way to make a total fool of yourself for our amusement!
It is hard to know which was funnier. Watching your display of rabid arrogance in thinking emotion based opinions would be mistaken for facts by anyone on THIS thread or your total stupidity in refusing to actually listen to people who actually know the facts! You been punked and owned fool.
Hope you enjoyed the expedience of making a complete ass out or yourself as much as we enjoyed watching you do it!
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