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.
Some things are hard to change.
Who is it that does that Happiness Hour... Is it Bennett, Medved or someone else?
I did! Getting the house ready was exhausting (think spring cleaning on steroids) but well worth it.
There is nothing like family!
True, my youngest puts baby Jesus out on Christmas.
Last year I wanted to do the equivalent of a calendar with one piece of hay and a figure a day... one of the kings, verse... etc. That's for inside though.
He told it... and put it up on the site for non-members.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer?
;-)
In effect ... I guess I am saying that.
But...what's next? After we kill everyone who doesn't want democracy in Iraq ... where to next? Africa has had it's share of death and destruction under the name of Allah.
Do we then become the global police force?
To the world we then have to wade through the crap of being called Fascists....and world dominators.
Call me simple ... I don't really care today .... but I say back the hell out of the middle east .. deport all the muslems from around the world to Saudi Arbia, for instance. Build a wall around them all and come back to check on them in 50 years. We'll deal with who is left.
Oh I must have been putting up the office Christmas Tree. I will check the site.
Thanks :0)
Marvelous
I agree!
Am I to assume , then ... you .. who held on every line I wrote ..... am as much a mouthbreating dolt?
The mirror sucks ..doesn't it?
You realize you could have ignored my comments and saved yourself 3 hours of bilous ignorance. Now get back to the WWF...
Nothing better to do in the "retirement home" I see....
Soon Wheel Of Fortune will be on and you can turn off Rush and nestle around the television with all your Oatmeal gumming pals.
Leave middle east politics to those than can actually locate Iraq on a map.
Wish it was that easy. Remember, we tried to ignore Europe and Adolph. Didn't work out real well.
We are at least trying. We cannot surrender the world to Muslim fanatics, and we are the only hope. It is going to take patience.
This has cost us dearly in middle east politics.
These people are not stupid ....
Secondly - we have to take the time to figure out who the bad guys are. Then when that is clear we have to be absolutely figgin brutal with them.
Thank you for your support ... and good night!
OH, I get it! You are one of those childish twits who thinks if he gets the last word in he somehow "wins". Very well then, I will allow you the last word so you can keep kidding yourself that everyone here is not laughing their ass off at your rabid stupidity and childish arrogance.
Do come back tomorrow. It will be so much fun seeing how many days you are willing to keep making an ass of yourself for our amusement.
Me too!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1701391/posts?page=10#10
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1702059/posts?page=27#27
Just for the record, it was Sept. 13, 2006.
Hey ... I agree with you. That freedom they enjoy came at a price. But for the middle east .. we are just the flavor of the month. It's like a domestic dispute where husband and wife are beating each other to a bloody pulp until the police arrive ... then they both jump the cops.
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