Waiting for his troops to come in
Posted On: Monday, Dec. 14 2009 05:04 AM
By Don Bolding
Killeen Daily HeraldThe last of three homecomings of the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team Sunday featured a reunion of a different kind.
Usually, soldiers get off buses coming from Robert Gray Army Airfield and march in formation to Cooper Field in front of the division's headquarters to be greeted by the rear detachment commander, but waiting in civilian clothes to march with them about 9 p.m. was Sgt. 1st Class Karl Pasco.
He has gone through more reconstructive surgeries than he can count on his face and torso from two wounds suffered during two deployments.
Pasco had always come home only to go into the hospital and never got the chance to march in to meet his family. He was wounded the first time May 30, 2004, and the second time Nov. 20, 2007.
Now in the Warriors in Transition program, he still has four or five facial surgeries to go. He said he might stay in the Army after that, but it's too soon to tell.
"I'm an Army brat. I still have a job with the Army," the San Antonio native said. "My wife, Joy, and I live in Kempner. It's enough for now."
Many of his comrades seemed as happy to see him as to reunite with their families and traded hugs with him at the buses and after the formation broke.
The homecomings for the unit began in November and helped lift the pall cast over the post by the Nov. 5 mass shootings, public affairs officer Maj. Chad Carroll said. The soldiers left in January, and this group got a couple of weeks trimmed from their yearlong deployment to be home by Christmas.
Other homecomings will continue for several months, with 1st Air Cavalry Brigade units the last slated to return in the spring. More than 5,000 of the 16,000 deployed have now returned. Carroll said the division only lost a half-dozen soldiers on this deployment.
Sgt. Elliot Onanson could hardly take his eyes off his year-old daughter, Jacquelyn, who was only a day old when he left.
"Her birth was so close that they let me stay until she was born," he said.
The whole family was there, including his wife, Aubrey; his daughter, Madelyn, 7; and his son, Alden, 3. Alden was just a newborn when his father left on his first deployment.
Jennifer Burton came to Fort Hood from New England to greet her returning son, Sgt. Jonathan Bakaian. "I've been here two days, just watching television, reading and waiting," she said.
He said, "It's good air here, clean, not polluted. And not Iraqi."
Pfc. Lester Walker was among the soldiers who had no family to greet them initially but was looking forward to spending Christmas with them in Illinois.
"I'll be there Christmas Eve," he said. "It's really good to be back on American soil."
Contact Don Bolding at
dbolding@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7557.
Upcoming 1st Cavalry Division homecomings
A flight of 2nd Brigade Combat Team soldiers is expected to arrive today at 3:45 p.m. A flight of 2nd BCT, 3rd Brigade Combat Team and Division Special Troops Battalion arrives at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday. For up-to-date arrivals, check www.hood.army.mil/1stcavdiv/redeployment/index.htm.