Posted on 08/08/2003 12:23:29 PM PDT by Pokey78
FORT STEWART -- The bulk of Charlie Company is expected to receive a joyous homecoming later this afternoon as it and other units from the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) return home from Iraq.
A flight carrying 294 3rd Infantry Division soldiers, including 58 from the Charlie Company group that led the thunder run into Baghdad, touched down at 1:50 p.m. today at Hunter. The soldiers have gone through Customs and have turned in their weapons. They now are waiting to board buses for the 35- to 40-minute ride to Fort Stewart.
Some members of Charlie Company, a unit that led the celebrated thunder run into Baghdad during the recent war, got back Thursday.
Families and friends waving banners, balloons and American flags began to gather at Caro Field nearly two hours before a wave of soldiers arrived Thursday.
As an announcement over the loudspeakers revealed that the men were less than 30 minutes away, Jennifer Cooper waited with her three children for her husband, Capt. Ron Cooper, a chaplain with Task Force1-64.
"I'm actually very calm, surprisingly," she said. "It's just time. It's time for him to come home."
But Cooper looked forward to showing her husband how his 14-month-old son, Seth, has grown. "He's just now starting to walk, but I've been pushing him down," she said, pointing to the child. "I didn't want him to start before his dad came back."
Nancy Schwartz, whose husband, Lt. Col. Eric Schwartz, commands Task Force 1-64, waited anxiously with her children Andrew, 9, and Allie, 13.
"This is the second war we've been through," she said. The first was the Persian Gulf War of 1991. But this one seemed "much longer and much more intense," she said.
Eight buses rolled into Fort Stewart around 5:45 p.m., carrying the soldiers.
As a military band played and onlookers cheered, the returning soldiers marched to the center of the field and reunited with their family members after a brief ceremony.
"Everything we've seen since we got on the ground has been heaven," said Sgt. Mark Strunk, Charlie Company's senior line medic.
Many family members said they had special meals planned after the ceremony.
Willie Mae Johnson, mother of Sgt. Edrese Johnson of Eastman, said she planned to "catch up on Thanksgiving and Christmas and birthdays" with tonight's dinner in her Dodge County home. Many of the returning soldiers had been in the Middle East since September.
"When the war started, I didn't know my baby was there front and center," she said. "I've been crying and crying. I'm so proud of him, and so glad he's home."
"It's just a great feeling," Lt. Col. Schwartz said as he hugged his daughter Allie. "It's the best feeling a dad and a husband could have."
Some of the 16,500 soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division, which saw heavy combat in the war and then remained to bolster a shaky peace, have been returning in recent weeks. The entire division is expected home by the end of next month.
Earlier Thursday, more than 1200 people gathered at Fort Stewart's Cottrell Field for a less joyful occasion -- a memorial ceremony in honor of three soldiers who died while in Iraq.
Sgt. Michael T. Crockett, 27, of Soperton was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack. Spc. Joel Bertoldie, 20, of Independence, Mo., apparently drove his Humvee over a bomb, and Sgt. Nathaniel Hart Jr., 29, of Valdosta reportedly died in an accidental vehicle crash.
Crockett, who died July 14, and Bertoldie, who died July 18, brought the death toll of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division in the war to 37.
Hart, a heavy wheel mechanic, was a member of the 260th Quartermaster Battalion.
"They did not let their fear of risk overcome their missions," said Col. Thomas Torrance, commander of division artillery. "They fought for freedom, and showed compassion to the vanquished."
Three trees at the edge of the field were dedicated to the fallen soldiers, joining a grove planted in honor of others based at Fort Stewart who were killed in combat.
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