Printed earlier today in the Press-Register, a story covering the return home celebrations for Prichard native Army Sgt. Donnie Leon Broughton Jr. who’s spent the last 3 years serving in Germany and Iraq.
Welcome home, Donnie!
There’s a great article posted on the Baldwin County Now site about a Rosinton family who welcome home one of their own: Will Stanback. He served in Iraq with the 1387th Quartermaster Unit of the Army National Guard, which is from Greenville, Mississippi, also known as the “Waterdawgs.”
You can read the whole article here.
Welcome home, Will!
Courtesy of Fox 10 News:
A family waits and watches for a daughter, a sister and an army combat nurse to come home from the battlefield of Iraq. “It has been a long fifteen months, very long,” said Sandra and Richard McMullen, their daughter is now home from Iraq.
Finally the wait is over, “Welcome home baby girl,” Sandra McMullen said to her daughter, 1st Lt. Jami Garrick, as the pair embraced.
A mother and child reunion; it’s been more than a year since Sandra McMullen held her baby girl in her arms.
“I don’t want to let go” said Garrick. Garrick is a combat nurse with the United States Army. She’s been treating coalition soldiers at a combat support hospital in Iraq. “Gone way too long,” added Garrick. “Very glad to be home.”
Garrick plans to pack as much family time into the next few days before shipping out to El Paso, Texas where she’s stationed. “Be here for four days and see family and nephews I’ve watched grow up thru pictures and video cam,” shared Garrick.
For now a proud family will snaps pictures to remember this Father’s Day when a daughter, a sister and a combat nurse came home.
Welcome home, Jami!
Per the Patriot Guard Riders:
After a year in the sand box, the 1206th Transport Unit out of Opelika, Alabama will be making their return trip home June 13th, and have requested the PGR escort them home. The PGR proudly escorted this Unit to Ft. Bragg North Carolina, with escort through Georgia and then North Carolina took them into Ft Bragg. Please join us in welcoming home these true American Heroes that will once again be reunited with their loved ones and their community.
Coverage from Opelika-Auburn News:
The city of Opelika will hold a homecoming ceremony on June 13 to celebrate the return of the 206th Transportation Company Army reserve unit following a yearlong tour in Iraq.
The event will be held in front of the Veterans Memorial Monument at the Opelika City Hall at 204 S. 7th St. and is open to the public.
The celebration will begin after the troops arrive in town on buses, which is expected to be between 8 and 8:30 p.m., Opelika Community Relations Specialist Jan Gunter said.
Welcome home, heroes!!
I saw in the Patriot Guard Riders forums that another Alabama soldier is returning home, sometime today.
Welcome home, SFC Morris Lowery!!!
Courtesy of the Patriot Guard Riders, the 1203rd guard unit from Dothan will be coming home this Sunday, June 8th. Details are currently not available, but if you want to participate, please contact your local PGR captain.
UPDATE: 06/04/2008 — This has also been covered on the WVTY News 4 site:
A National Guard unit from Dothan could return home this weekend after nearly nine months in Iraq.
170 members of the 1203rd Engineer Battalion’s headquarters company was scheduled to return this week to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin.
After a few days at Fort McCoy, the unit should head home to Dothan and could arrive this Sunday.
The 1203rd’s mission overseas included road-side bomb patrols, helping communities erect security barriers and working with Iraqi soldiers to repair bomb-damaged roads.
UPDATE: 06/06/2008 — The Birmingham News also chimes in:
The Alabama Army National Guard’s Headquarters Company, 1203rd Engineer Battalion, is scheduled to return to its armory in Dothan on Sunday afternoon.
The unit, which has about 170 soldiers, was in Iraq for about nine months, based at Logistics Support Area Anaconda near the city of Balad. It has spent several days at Fort McCoy, Wis., where it trained before deploying.
While at Anaconda, the 1203rd headquarters company had about 900 additional soldiers and airmen under its command. Its mission in Iraq included roadside bomb patrols, helping nearby communities erect security barriers, and working with Iraqi soldiers to repair bomb-damaged roads.
Welcome home, heroes!!!
Courtesy of The Birmingham News:
More than 150 members of a Cullman-based Army National Guard unit are to be welcomed home Thursday following a tour of about eight months in Kuwait and Iraq.
Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 167th Infantry, logged more than a million miles guarding supply convoys to and from U.S. military installations throughout Iraq. On Thursday, the soldiers are to board a bus convoy from Camp Shelby, Miss., to the Cullman County Fairgrounds, where they will attend a brief welcome home ceremony before being dismissed to rejoin their families.
Meanwhile, another state Guard unit now in, Iraq, the 1203rd Engineer Battalion, “will be back in Alabama somewhere around the first week of June,” according to a unit spokesman, Capt. Don Barnes. The Dothan-based 1203rd sent about 170 soldiers to Iraq, where it was based near the city of Balad and had about 900 additional soldiers and airmen under its command.
The 1203rd’s mission in Iraq included roadside bomb patrols, helping nearby communities erect security barriers, and working with Iraqi soldiers to repair bomb-damaged roads.
Welcome home, heroes!!!
Courtesy of The Birmingham News:
An Alabama Army National Guard unit that has spent the past eight or so months on convoy protection missions in Iraq is due back in the United States next weekend.
More than 150 members of Cullman-based Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 167th Infantry Regiment, are slated to arrive May 18 at Camp Shelby, Miss., then head to Cullman a few days later, said Gina Fulmer, wife of a battalion member, Sgt. Joseph Fuller of Argo.
Charlie Company has been based at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, since September, and its soldiers have traveled thousands of miles throughout Iraq — which they often call “Indian Country” — guarding 18-wheel supply trucks heading to and from U.S. military installations.
Fulmer said that as they wait to fly out of Kuwait, her husband and other unit members are spending their mornings at a swimming pool and the afternoons working out in a gym.
“He said the water is cold,” Fulmer said.
Breaking news from The Birmingham News:
About 140 members of the Anti-Terrorism Battalion, a Bessemer-based Marine Reserve unit, are expected back in the U.S. next week after completing a tour in Iraq.
The reservists, with the battalion’s Charlie Company, hail from battalion sites in Jackson, Miss., Tallahassee, Fla., and Chicopee, Mass. The unit’s ranks also include about 33 Alabamians.
Charlie Company has been in Anbar province since September, attached to the 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment. Its mission has included protecting convoys carrying supplies and prisoners, searching houses, patrolling streets and manning checkpoints.
Master Gunnery Sgt. David Holladay, a battalion spokesman, said Charlie Company is expected at Camp Lejeune, N.C., “at some point next week” and should be back in Bessemer before month’s end.
Great news! Hooaah!
