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Families ready for brigade’s return

Nov-25-2006 » Filed Under: 172nd SBCT

By Margaret Friedenauer

Jennifer Thomas scrawled her sentiments about the upcoming week in white paint across the windows of her car Friday morning.

“It’s about time,” the letters read. “Welcome home. Finally.”

“I wanted to write ‘It’s about damn time,’” Thomas said. “But I thought for when the kids ride in the car and all, I shouldn’t.”

Still, the extra punch of that word reflects Thomas’ jumbled emotions, ranging from excitement to anxiety about the coming days when her husband returns from 16 months in Iraq.

Sgt. Will Thomas is one of the 3,800 soldiers of the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team returning to Fairbanks in the next two weeks after a one-year deployment to northern Iraq and a four-month extension in Baghdad. The first of the soldiers begin arriving this morning in Fairbanks and Anchorage and the entire brigade should be back by Dec. 6, according to Army officials.

In August, when the brigade was originally scheduled to return, Thomas and her three young daughters spent weeks making welcome home signs and decorating T-shirts for Will Thomas’ arrival. On July 27, when Thomas received word that the 172nd had been extended, she went outside and ripped down a sheet decorated with her daughters’ hand prints, and “We Love You!” written in glitter paint. Friday afternoon, Thomas finally retrieved that sheet, which she had tucked away in the back of a closest for the last four months, and hung it across her garage door. Some of the letters were a little faded and there was a crease down the middle that irritated Thomas, but the sign was up.[...]


Comments For "Families ready for brigade’s return":

To the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends, wives and girlfriends, daughters and sons of our soldiers, both here and fallen, let me say that I am humbled and honored to be part of such a strong, exceptional group of people.

Posted by: zsgirl [TypeKey Profile Page] | November 25, 2006 3:51 PM

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