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Wives ready Fort Lewis for troops' return

Aug-25-2007 » Filed Under: 3/2 SBCT

Christian Hill, The Olympian

FORT LEWIS — Few get this excited about making a bed, never mind making more than 200 beds.

But these half-dozen wives had a spring in their steps Friday as they tucked corners and smoothed blankets and sheets, one of innumerable tasks both large and small under way to prepare for the return of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team) after a 15-month deployment to Iraq.

"It's like the light at the end of the tunnel," Melissa Townsend, wife of Col. Steve Townsend, the brigade commander, said in an earlier interview. "You can put your hands on it."

The brigade's "torch" party is scheduled to return home in early September to lay the groundwork for welcoming back the rest of the 3,600-soldier unit. Then, in a ritual that will repeat itself numerous times in subsequent weeks, weary soldiers will reunite with overjoyed spouses and children shortly after stepping off a plane.

The family readiness group for the Brigade Troops Battalion wanted to ensure the return was just as memorable for single soldiers whose families may live far away. More than half of the battalion's 450 soldiers are unmarried.

So the group went to work Friday to give a touch of home to quarters that have been vacate for more than a year. They started with making the beds. Over the weekend, they will ensure the comforts and necessities of home are waiting for the soldiers, such as toothbrushes, shaving cream, razors and a plate of oven-baked cookies.

"We would like them to feel as good when they come home as our husbands do," said Sharon Lemke, whose husband, Ryan, is a sergeant assigned to the battalion.

The family readiness groups for the brigade's other subordinate units are taking similar steps to welcome home their single soldiers.

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