48th Brigade soldiers' stories

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Christopher Mingledorff: Father grateful for son’s greeting

Tommy Mingledorff smiled with pride as the welcoming party from home surrounded his son, Spc. Christopher Mingledorff, in the early morning darkness at Fort Stewart.

There was Christopher and his girlfriend, Brittany Durden, and his buddy from grade school, Kelly Edwards, and his stepmom, Julia Mingledorff. Even the family dog, Dewey, came along.

Christopher, 20, joined the National Guard because “there wasn’t a whole lot going on” where they lived, outside the little Savannah River town of Clyo, his father said. Jobs were scarce.

“He wanted to do something,” Tommy Mingledorff said.

Now Christopher stood in his clean camouflage uniform talking about his travels around the world and his duty with a team that trained Afghan police and military personnel.

“We teach them what to do and what not to do,” he said.

Christopher likes the military, he said with a smile, because, “I get to shoot big guns.” He hopes to enlist with the regular Army — an idea his father supports.

Tommy Mingledorff is glad his son received a hero’s welcome. The 62-year-old retired trucker was a machine gunner in Vietnam. No crowd greeted him with balloons and cheers when he flew home to Savannah in 1970.

“I hitchhiked home in the rain,” he said, adding, “It wasn’t like this, that’s for sure.”

-- RALPH ELLIS

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Joshua Winchester: Made-over ‘man cave’ greets soldier

1st Sgt. Joshua Winchester sipped a chilled Bud Light as his wife drove him to their Jesup home Tuesday morning. He got his first look at the redecorating she did in his “man cave,” the dining room they converted into his television and sports memorabilia room. And then he got to sleep in his own bed for the first time in nearly a year.

As he hugged his wife, two sons and daughter after arriving at Fort Stewart, the Pepsi truck driver had one word to describe his feelings about being home: “Awesome.”

Later, he marveled at the painting and redecorating his wife did in their home.

“Me and my boys have been sitting here listening to some music,” he said. “It’s really cool. She did a really good job. You have to see it. It’s great.”

His wife, Tracy, said everyone was pumped up with adrenaline from the reunion.

“Once we got home it was probably 4:30 in the morning before me and him and the kids went to bed, even though we were exhausted,” she said. “We were talking and catching up.”

She said her husband had some close calls in Afghanistan, including a five-hour firefight in July. It wasn’t his first brush with trouble. On Thanksgiving Day of 2005, he survived an explosion from an insurgent’s roadside bomb that struck his Humvee in Iraq. It’s been tough worrying about him, raising their three children and studying for an associate’s degree in radiology all at the same time, she said. But she supports his military career.

“Sometimes I feel like, ‘Wow, Uncle Sam gets him more than I do,’ ” she said. “But it is something he absolutely loves.”

-- JEREMY REDMON

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Joel Lamp: 
Wife’s worries float away with homecoming

Sandra Lamp of Reidsville clutched the strings to three Mylar balloons — gifts for her husband of 20 years — as she waited on cold metal bleachers at Fort Stewart.

This year, she said, had been hard.

“He called me about every day,” she said. “Between the Internet and the phone it helped me get over the stress.”

Spc. Joel Lamp, 42, has been in the military 28 years, 15 of them with the National Guard. He enlisted when he was 16, earlier than normally allowed.

“My uncle is a full bird colonel and he pulled some strings,” Lamp said.

He’s been in other combat zones, including Iraq and Bosnia. In Afghanistan, he was a driver, a gunner, a cook and a medic — “a little bit of everything.” He injured his back and leg during a truck rollover and needed medical treatment because the smoggy air irritated his lungs.

He said he didn’t tell his wife everything, partly because of security and partly so she wouldn’t worry so much. “It was a little hectic at times,” he said.

He has three years left on his National Guard contract. After that he’ll probably call it quits and devote himself to their little farm in South Georgia, he said.

On Tuesday morning, as Sandra Lamp ran across the grass with the other families, the balloons slipped from her fingers. Her husband saw them float into the air.

After a year apart, that was nothing to worry about.

-- RALPH ELLIS