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Family day helps defuse anxieties

Sep-16-2007 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

By Chris Eshleman, Daily News-Miner

Shelby Winch picked up a black Army radio receiver and held it to her ear.

“You got me?” 8-year-old Shelby asked.

“Roger that,” 22-year-old Spc. Justin Banner answered back from another radio a few feet away.

Shelby is the stepdaughter of Army Staff Sgt. Darian Howerton, who had brought his family to a Fort Wainwright motor pool Saturday. Instead of displaying parts and mechanics’ tools, the walls were lined with more than a half-dozen stations covered with camping gear, night-vision equipment, unloaded weapons and other gadgets.

It was Family Day for the post’s Stryker brigade. Kids could hold sleeping bags, try on camoflauge clothes or handle unloaded assault rifles longer than they were tall.

Howerton said events like Saturday’s help integrate Army families into the larger military community.

“It makes for a better support structure,” he said.

The 3,900-member brigade is stacked with seasoned soldiers and officers, hundreds of whom served under its previous flag and chose to stay after returning from Iraq last winter.

Saturday’s event offered a chance for soldiers’ families to catch a glimpse of daily life in uniform.

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