Posted on 04/28/2003 6:58:43 AM PDT by Incorrigible
Monday, April 28, 2003
BY MATTHEW J. DOWLING
Star-Ledger Staff
Army Sgt. James Riley arrived home in Pennsauken, NJ last night and was reunited with his entire family for the first time since being freed from captivity as prisoner of war in Iraq two weeks ago.
"It just felt like the family was complete," said his mother, Jane Riley, who visited her 31-year-old son at Fort Bliss, Texas, last week.
Aside from the television cameras that have become a fixture on the Rileys' quiet residential street, Jane Riley said, the arrival of her son came with little fanfare shortly after 8 p.m.
"The neighbors were all out," Jane Riley said during a telephone interview last night. "He just got out of the car and came in the house."
She said James Riley began sorting through mounds of mail that flooded the Rileys' home during the weeks he was listed as missing after his unit, the 507th Maintenance Co., was ambushed near Nasiriya, Iraq.
Riley was freed along with six other POWs after his captors fled advancing U.S. forces.
Jane Riley returned from visiting her son in Texas on Wednesday and was hopeful he would join the rest of his family in Pennsauken shortly. But his arrival last night came as somewhat of a surprise, she said.
"We weren't exactly sure he was coming in (last night)," Jane Riley said. "It's always a surprise when he comes home."
James Riley's arrival last night marked the first time he saw his father, Athol, and his sister Katherine, 22, in nine months. Athol Riley's fear of flying kept him from joining his wife on the visit to Fort Bliss, Texas.
James Riley's other sister, Mary Riley, 29, died of a rare neurological disorder on March 28, a few days after he was taken prisoner by Iraqi forces. James Riley learned of his sister's death while speaking to his parents by telephone in Germany shortly after he was freed.
Jane Riley said the family opted for a quiet dinner celebration with kielbasa on the menu to celebrate her son's safe return. Pennsauken officials are planning a parade for Sunday to formally welcome the hometown hero, she said.
James Riley has been barred by the Department of Defense from discussing with the media his time as a POW, his mother said. He is currently on a 30-day convalescent leave.
During an interview with reporters from the Washington Post and Miami Herald on a plane bound for Kuwait shortly after Riley and the other POWs were freed, Riley described the gun battle that claimed the lives of nine members of his unit.
"We were like Custer. We were surrounded," Riley said. "We had no working weapons. We couldn't even make a bayonet charge -- we would have been mowed down."
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