National Guard unit back home after 15 months in Iraq

CAMP MURRAY, Pierce County — For the soldiers, families and friends of the 1161st Transportation Company, the heartbreak moment came at the end of April. The 110 men and women of the National Guard unit, after surviving a perilous 12 months trucking supplies around Iraq, had reached the safety of Kuwait. In a matter of days, they would be flying home.

Then came new orders. The fighting in Iraq had taken a turn for the worse, and a stretched-out U.S. military needed more boots on the ground. Their unit, based in Ephrata, Grant County, would have to return for another few months of service "My heart just dropped out of me," said Sgt. Terry Bradshaw, who was preparing to rejoin his three children back in Washington. "We found out by opening up a copy of The Stars and Stripes [newspaper for the military] and reading a list of the redeployed units. The mood turned pretty sour."

Shortly past 1 a.m. Saturday, Bradshaw and the rest of the 1161st got their long-delayed reunion inside a large, brick-walled building at the Washington Guard headquarters at Camp Murray. The unit lined up for one last formation amid the cheers and screams of families.

Brig. Gen. Gordon Toney made a few, ever-so-brief welcoming remarks and then wisely stepped aside to allow families to reunite with soldiers in an eruption of hugs, kisses and tears.

Bradshaw's homecoming was sweet but incomplete. His wife, Cheryl, is an active-duty soldier who was deployed to South Korea in May. So as he held close his three children, ages 12 to 20, he also talked via cellphone to his wife on the other side of the Pacific.

"She was glad to hear we finally got back," said Bradshaw, who works at Fort Lewis as a civilian instructor for troops stationed there.

The 1161st's Iraq deployment ranks as the longest of any Washington National Guard unit since World War II. And the soldiers' 15 months in Iraq was three months longer than the yearlong tour of duty that is the stated Pentagon policy. The extension reflects the strains the U.S. military has felt in the face of a stubborn, violent Iraq insurgency.

The 1161st flew back to Washington via Italy, Iceland and Chicago before landing at Boeing Field and piling into a bus for the ride to Camp Murray.

All the soldiers will have three-day passes to go home to their families, then must return for up to five days to complete demobilization, according to Master Sgt. Jeff Clayton, a National Guard spokesman.

For Pilar Kunzelman, the homecoming of her husband, Michael, comes just in time to celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary today with their two teenage children. "I've been really nervous, and my two kids have been trying to calm me down," she said.

Michael Kunzelman already has a must-do list for the next few days: Barbecue a steak, gorge on chocolate ice cream and savor a "mondo mocha" from a favorite coffee shop. He also has a job offer from a Puget Sound steel mill.

The soldiers of the 1161st were part of the small, early vanguard of state Guard deployments to Iraq. They arrived in May, 2003, setting up camp outside Baghdad International Airport.

Back then, the U.S. occupation was still young, and it appeared there might be a relatively peaceful rebuilding. But in the months that followed, the insurgency took hold, honing hit-and-run tactics that have claimed hundreds of American and thousands of Iraqi lives.

As truckers, the 1161st drew dangerous duty. Convoys have been a frequent target of the insurgents, and the unit soldiers, commanded by Capt. David Linville, completed nearly 14,000 missions that covered more than 1 million miles. Along the way, they were hit with improvised explosive devices and subject to rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire.

Yet only after months of service in Iraq did all soldiers in the units receive body armor to replace their more-vulnerable flak jackets, according to several soldiers. Soldiers also had to improvise extra protection for truck cabs, adding plywood, sandbags and other shields. And for months on end, soldiers said their truck convoys lacked one of the standard defenses to fend off insurgent attacks — an escort by a truck mounted with a .50-caliber gun.

Six soldiers did receive significant wounds.

Spc. Audra Hauer, was one of the first. Her truck was hit June 12, 2003, by an explosive device concealed in a black plastic bag. The explosion slammed her against the truck cab, fracturing her back and sending chunks of shrapnel into her body.

Hauer has completed a lengthy recovery and yesterday morning reunited with her fiance, Spc. Rick Fyhrie. The two were high-school sweethearts in Ellensburg and had gone off to war together before being separated by Hauer's accident and evacuation to state-side medical care.

The extended deployment has forced them to cancel a series of wedding dates. The latest date was Aug. 7 — but now they're thinking of getting married sometime in the next few months, then attending college. Hauer plans to major in broadcast journalism.

Families and soldiers are being prepped by military counselors for what sometimes is a difficult readjustment. A recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine indicated that one in six soldiers returning from Iraq shows signs of post-traumatic stress or related disorders.

Some of the most vulnerable are those who suffered through traumatic attacks.

Jeffrey Elliott, injured in the same blast that wounded Hauer, is still struggling with the emotional aftermath of his Iraq duty. He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and also has a serious back injury.

While Hauer has made a strong recovery from her shrapnel wounds, the stress of the roadside attacks in Iraq has also left a mark. She still feels anxious when caught in a traffic jam. And whenever she sees trash on the road, she instinctively swerves to try to get out of the way

"It's just second nature," Hauer said.