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Thursday, April 20, 2006
‘He’s really not coming home’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Curtis Compton
Heidi Shelly, 25, of Valdosta, widow of Sgt. Ronnie Shelley, 34, killed July 30 in Iraq, wipes away tears as she watches other wives embrace their husbands at Fort Stewart Thursday.
Fort Stewart — For Heidi Shelley, the reality of her husband’s death in Iraq last summer was finalized Thursday as she watched soldiers from Sgt. Ronnie Shelley’s unit reunited with their loved ones here.
Shelley sat in the shade of the reviewing stand, alternately cheering and crying while friends and family members swarmed the parade field in search of their soldiers from the 48th Brigade Combat Team.
“This means he’s really not coming home,” said Shelley, 25, a mother of three from Valdosta.
“Our kids have pretty much accepted the fact that their daddy’s in a coffin, and the coffin is buried in the ground,” she added. “But I’ve had a harder time accepting it. I had to see him not march off that field to me.”
Ronnie Shelley, 34, a bakery supervisor, was among 11 soldiers from the 48th killed in an 11-day stretch last summer. He and three others from his Cordele-based unit died when a roadside bomb destroyed their Humvee July 30.
Twenty-six citizen soldiers from the 48th were killed during the 4,400-member unit’s year-long combat tour in Iraq.
Thursday’s ceremony for returning soldiers was the second in less than 12 hours. About 300 troops, most from infantry companies based in Gainesville and Lawrenceville, arrived about 11 p.m. Wednesday. The bulk of the brigade is expected to be back in Georgia by mid-May.
Shelley didn’t bring her children, ages 13, 9 and 4, to the ceremony. Her older sister, Marty Garrett, stayed by her side during the brief reunion along with Sgt. 1st Class Frank Mills, 56, a Vietnam veteran and the casualty assistance officer assigned to aid Shelley following her husband’s death..
“When Heidi told me she was coming [to the reunion], I had reservations about it,” said Mills, a fulltime National Guard soldier. “One thing I’ve learned about her is that once she decides something, that’s it. She’s a strong woman.”
Shelley has stayed in contact with her husband’s fellow soldiers sending them e-mail, letters N even fishing rods.
Minutes after the ceremony ended, Spc. Jeffrey Anderson, 36, of Gainesville, and Staff Sgt. Gerald Coleman, 43, of Camilla, spotted her on the reviewing stand and embraced her.
“Ronnie was my battle buddy, my gunner and my best friend,” Anderson said.
They thanked her for coming and said they admired her courage. But Shelley disagreed.
“It’s not courage,” she said. “I’m falling apart inside.”
Shelley she said she was comforted by the fact that her late husband’s comrades kept his memory close to them.
“To know they haven’t forgotten means so much,” she said. “They didn’t push my husband’s memory to the side.”
Georgia Brunson-York was among those who showed up early for homecoming with her husband and two young sons in tow. She came to welcome home the soldiers who served with her brother, Spc. Jacques E. “Gus” Brunson.
Brunson, 30, a butcher from Cordele, was killed July 24 by a roadside bomb. Three other soldiers riding in the Humvee with him also were killed.
“I don’t have my brother coming back,” Brunson-York, 32, said as she stood near a redbud tree planted in his memory on the edge of the parade field. “I’m here because I believe in what our troops are doing.”
She recalled her brother’s big appetite, his smelly socks and the nickname she gave him when he played football at Worth County High School: “gorilla.”
“He loved my cooking. I didn’t have to worry about leftovers,” she said.
Brunson-York said she kept in touch with her brother by e-mail while he was in Iraq. He and her family had planned to go to Disney World when he returned.
When she saw the soldiers marching across the toward the reviewing stand, Brunson-York stood stood and cheered, waving a small American flag.
The families surrounding her scrambled out onto the field, in search of their their loved ones. Brunson-York slowly waded into the crowd. She immediately found her brother’s company commander and hugged him.
“I hated what happened. He was a great guy,” Capt. Marc Belscamper, of Savannah, told her.
Spc. Rodney Davidson, who was with Brunson when he was killed, tried to console Brunson-York.
“I’m sorry. He was wonderful,” Davidson, 39, of Thomaston, told her. “Thank you for being here. It means a lot to us. I was in the vehicle right ahead of him. It could have been any one of us that day. It still hurts.”
Brunson-York found herself sympathizing with Davidson and several other soldiers who witnessed the aftermath of the bombing that day.
“I hate that you had to see it,” she told Davidson. “It wasn’t fair. He was your friend.”
Brunson-York was among the last to walk off the field. She had finally met some of her brother’s friends in person. But she wasn’t certain the pain would ever stop.
Soldiers, families reunited at last
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fort Stewart - After a year of living nervously, the families and friends of several hundred 48th Brigade Combat Team soldiers welcomed their loved ones home from Iraq in an emotional, late-night ceremony here Wednesday.
Joyous wives, children and parents rushed across the grassy, brightly lit parade field following a brief “job well done” from Gov. Sonny Perdue in an effort to find their soldiers.
“I feel like a 3-year-old on Christmas morning,” said an exuberant Spc. Leomar Jackson, 22, of Athens, as he embraced five family members and his girlfriend.
About 300 soldiers, most from infantry units based in Gainesville and Lawrenceville, were in this vanguard of the main group of 4,400 citizen soldiers in the brigade due to return home over the next three weeks after nearly a year in Iraq.
The plane carrying them touched down at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah at 8:25 p.m. Wednesday, where they were met by Perdue and his wife, Mary.
“Welcome back. Thanks for everything. Great to see you. Glad you’re back on Georgia soil,” Perdue said as he shook each soldier’s hand.
Several soldiers, still clad in rumpled camouflage and dusty boots, fell to their knees and kissed the concrete tarmac.
“It feels great,” said Sgt. Thomas Denny, a city of Gainesville employee.
Another group of several hundred 48th soldiers is expected to arrive here this morning.
Following their arrival in Savannah, soldiers spent a few minutes shaving and brushing their teeth before boarding buses for the 40-mile ride to the reunion with their family members.
Once the buses arrived at Fort Stewart, loved ones carrying American flags and wearing yellow ribbons could barely contain their excitement, breaking into cheers and screams.
Once dismissed from formation following the singing of the national anthem and the Army song, the soldiers and family members scrambled to find one another, sometimes almost in vain.
Stacey Self of Lawrenceville, with 6-month-old Katelyn in one hand and 3-year-old Madison in the other, wandered through the crowd in tears, calling out “Bobby,” unable to find her husband.
When Spc. Bobby Self was called to the podium and finally reunited with his family, he could barely believe how much Katelyn had grown in his absence.
“I’m just happy to death,” Self said. “I’ve been waiting so long. God, she has grown a lot since I last saw her.”
Sgt. Roger Cameron Jr., must stay at Fort Stewart with the rest of his unit for several more days to turn in equipment and wrap up personnel issues. Jeannie Cameron also wants to give her husband time to decompress.
“Having the children jumping all over him would be kind of a concern,” said Cameron, 30. “We just decided to wait until he comes home for good to do the reunion.”
Other parents decided to keep their young children home because of the lateness of the soldiers’ arrival or because those of school age are required to take standardized tests this week.
But Brandy LeBrescu came with her 19-month-old daughter Makayla and 4-year-old son, Damien. LeBrescu said it was a struggle caring for both children while her husband was away.
“It’s been fairly difficult. I’m kind of outnumbered,” she said.
As the families waited into the night for the soldiers to arrive, many could not help but notice a nearby memorial of flowering trees, each planted in honor of a Fort Stewart soldier killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Twenty-six of the living monuments shading “Warrior Walk” bear the names of 48th Brigade soldiers lost during this deployment. More than 200 were wounded.
Hoffman said those who served with the 48th have formed unbreakable bonds with fellow soldiers. “No one who was there will ever forget the faces of the Iraqis or the people they served with,” Hoffman said. “Those experiences, those people, will always be with you.”
While the cities and towns the soldiers patrolled for nearly a year are still in the throes of a violent insurgency, the Georgia soldiers say they take pride in the personal sacrifices they and their families made to perform their duties.
“Our soldiers can all point to some tangible good they did in Iraq,” Hoffman said. “They performed extremely well and honorably. They did their utmost to protect the people around them. They did everything we asked of them and more.”
