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.
Oh but THAT right, he told you losers that was just the "Koolaid drinkers" trying to get him. Maybe but still does not answer WHY he lives his personal life 100% opposed to what he screams into hims Mic everyday now does it?
So care to explain why what your idol actually does in his personal life is 100% at odds with what he SAYS he on his show? O
They were so oversold on the benefits of democracy. They were led to believe that the day after the election or within a relatively short period time all their woes would go away. The casting of the ballot was to bring about some kind of miracle, a panacea.
We in the US have learned from experience that the results of democracy are not always a great success. To wit: the election of FDR, Johnson, Carter, and Clinton. It takes years for a public to be educated to the proper use of the franchise and in some countries I am not sure it ever comes about.
My first realization as to the gratitude of these people was when their olympic soccer team which we rescued from Saddam and his terrorist thug of a son and then encouraged to train for the competition shouted insults at the US during the Olympic games. We should have known then if we did not learn from the past that nation building was not going to work.
All we can do is give them a start. You see where Russia is today after fifteen years of democracy. Democracy is not easy. Just ask the Palestinians.
They will suffer through it and succeed IMHO. However, if we leave prematurely, they are certainly doomed.
I don't expect our nation to tuck its tail and run because we are tired of IRaq.
Dennis Prager
We have given them a start. We have shed 3,000 lives to give them a start. It's now time for them to step up to the plate and do their part. They have not and I don't think they will. I, for one am not willing to send servicemen even if they are volunteering to Iraq to see them shot by Sunnis one day and Shiites the next.
"So care to explain why what your idol actually does in his personal life is 100% at odds with what he SAYS he on his show?"
Could you explain to me how YOUR idol explains Viagra in the Dominican Republic is an example of conservative family values?
(Since we are talking about "personal lives"?)
"everyone here is not laughing their ass off at your rabid stupidity and childish arrogance." --- Please speak for yourself, MNJohnnie. You may just be all alone with all your name calling. You have a habit of trying to make other FReepers feel that you are in some kind of lame hateful club.
Speak for yourself....... and stand for yourself.
'Fighting Irish' all day long sparring with you has been much less than as willing as you with all the nasty invective and incessant name calling that you have continually employed. Take a day to grow up a little.
Again ..... SPEAK for yourself, MNJohnnie.
Why do you continually include the rest of FR in your angry posts?
When I get into a civil discussion with a democrat friend, I ask them to do a mental exercise of writing the headline if 'whatever event' had occured with democrats in charge. They often agree with me that the reporting would be different. Then they go back to believing that what they read in their preferred news media is true reporting. "Belief systems" beat logic every time with the dems.
The cost of leaving with the job not done is far greater than the cost now. What did 9/11 cost us? If you are not willing to risk volunteer soldiers for something this important, why have an army? How many Iraqis police recruits have to die before you are convinced they are "stepping up to the plate"?
If we leave now, we will appear to be cowards regardless of the reason for leaving. That is a terrible mistake when dealing with enemies as ruthless as the Muslims are.
You need to quit watching the nightly news. I saw this same attitude cripple us in Vietnam, but that took far longer than three years.
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