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Returning soldiers worth wait

Oct- 6-2004 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

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CHRISTIAN HILL THE OLYMPIAN

FORT LEWIS -- Anticipation built as family members waited Tuesday night for the scheduled arrival of the first Stryker brigade soldiers returning from Iraq.

Then a soldier announced a hitch: The long-awaited reunion would have to wait up to two hours while 130 members of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, cleared customs at McChord Air Force Base.

A murmur of discontent coursed through the bleachers at the Sheridan Fitness Center gymnasium, but family members waited it out.

"Hey, two hours, that's less time than we've waited for 12 months," said Lacey resident Zenny Campisi, 44, a Fort Lewis dental assistant awaiting the arrival of her husband, Scott. "That's nothing."

The soldiers finally stepped into the gymnasium at 10:15 p.m. to the cheers of family members holding signs and balloons. The homecoming is the first of many to follow as the 4,000 soldiers who served nearly a year in Iraq make their way home.

Last month, family members and Fort Lewis bade farewell to the Army unit that's replacing the returning soldiers: the second Stryker brigade, the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.

The Army created the Stryker brigades to fill an operational void between its light and heavy forces.

During its time in Iraq, the first Stryker brigade conducted multiple combat and civil military operations, primarily in northern Iraq.

Nineteen soldiers from the brigade died during its time there.


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