[Vision2020] Stryker Soldiers Start Returning to Wainwright

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (December 4, 2006) Roundup Edition of the Army Times -

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Stryker soldiers start returning to Wainwright

The Associated Press

FAIRBANKS, Alaska - Nearly 1,000 of the 3,800 soldiers of the 172nd Stryker
Brigade Combat Team based at Fort Wainwright returned from Iraq to Fairbanks
on Thursday, making it the busiest day for arrivals since the brigade began
coming home to Alaska last Saturday.
 
Most arrived after dark to Fort Wainwright, but bright lights placed along
the road inside the front gate illuminated hundreds of welcome home signs
hung along the fence.

With the arrival of three flights in one day, reunions ran close together
Thursday.

Karen Lewis thought she was arriving four hours early to meet her husband,
Pfc. Michael Lewis. But when she arrived, the families and soldiers from the
first flight were just leaving the building.

Still, she was able to accomplish her goal of securing a front-row seat so
she could easily spot her husband.

"So we can run to him right away," she said.

At least 15 families from the Lower 48 came to Fairbanks to welcome their
soldier, said Mary Cheney, a Family Readiness Group leader.

Jan Pichard and her husband planned to travel from Houston to Fairbanks in
August when the brigade was originally scheduled to return. However, a
last-minute extension kept the soldiers in Iraq another four months.

Pichard said her son, Cpl. Samuel Pichard, 21, surprised her with a ticket
for a November flight one day when they were instant messaging each other
over the Internet.

"He asked if I wanted window or aisle," she said. "I said If you're buying
me a ticket, you can strap me on the wing, I don't care."

She arrived early Thursday with a special request from her son: Shiner Bock
Beer from Texas.

"He asked for a six-pack of Shiner Bock, but I brought a whole case of all
kinds," she said, adding that 21 of the 24 bottles made the trek in one
piece.

Even soldiers without families or friends to greet them were thrilled with
the warm welcome from the crowd.

They were offered a pizza buffet as they got off the buses, and two
limousines were waiting to take them to their rooms.

Walking out of the building, pizza in hand, Spc. Marcus Ham said the extra
leg room of a limo would be nice, compared to the buses the soldiers rode
from Eielson Air Force Base to Fort Wainwright.

But once he and his fellow soldiers stepped outside, Ham was wowed by their
ride.

"Are you kidding me?" he said, climbing inside a Hummer limousine.

"Let me get out again," he said, kissing the snowy ground and looking up a
the twilight sky. "I haven't been in America in a long time."

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Party down, Fairbanks.

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.