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Holding down the home fort

Mar-27-2006 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT , Homefront

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By MARGARET FRIEDENAUER, Staff Writer

Any other year, Dave and Jan Reed would be spending the winter touring the Lower 48 in their RV, working for the National Parks Service as lighthouse tour guides or campground hosts. But this year, the Reeds are spending time in Fairbanks, tackling snow, cold and holding down the fort for their son and daughter-in-law while they are deployed to Iraq.

"It's the least we could do for these guys," Dave Reed said last week at their temporary home in the hills off Skyline Drive.

Their son, Lt. Col. Shawn Reed is the executive officer for the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. His wife, Maj. Mary Reed is a doctor also deployed with the brigade. The couple are both in Mosul but stationed at different bases on either end of the city.

The Reeds offered to come to Fairbanks for a year to house- and dog-sit for their son and daughter-in-law. They may not have chosen to spend a winter in Fairbanks if not to help out family, but the adventurous and cheery couple said they've made the best of it.

Dave said he had an inkling of what he and his wife may be getting into; Shawn was first stationed at Fort Wainwright in the mid-'90s, and father and son drove cross-country to Alaska in the middle of January. Dave said he was supposed to stay for about two weeks to help his son get settled, but he left after just four days of bitter cold.

"I said, 'You know, son, I gotta go,'" Dave said.

This time Dave and Jan are sticking it out. They arrived in June and did some traveling around the state before Shawn and Mary left for Iraq. And then they settled in for the winter, but staying true to form, they didn't settle down.


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