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Friends indeed

Nov-24-2006 » Filed Under: Homefront

By TATABOLINE BRANT, Anchorage Daily News

Angelina Estrada and Shena Johnson are really glad they met each other two years ago at church. But Thursday they didn't have much time to talk about it.

It's Thanksgiving, after all, and their hands, as usual, are full. The two 28-year-olds have three kids each -- all under the age of 8. Both of their husbands are gone to Iraq.

Estrada's husband, a staff sergeant in the Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade, has been gone for 16 months. He's due back Saturday. Johnson's, a sergeant first class in Fort Richardson's new airborne brigade, left last month. He won't be back for a year.

And today, like many other holidays, they're flying solo together with the kids. It's not new to them: Both families have been through deployments before. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween, Independence Day, birthdays -- Estrada and Johnson have celebrated all of them together.

"We haven't done Valentine's Day," Estrada says while whizzing around her Eagle River kitchen, preparing a meal as the kids yell and laugh downstairs.

Johnson agrees: "We stay at home and be sad."

But not now. It's Thanksgiving and Estrada is daring to believe that this time, her husband really is coming home. The last time he was due back -- in September -- the brigade's tour was extended.

"I can feel her excitement about being a family again," says Johnson.[...]


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