Soldiers Grateful for Respite From Iraq

By WILEY HALL
Associated Press Writer

Army paratrooper Brian Harper poses in his parents home in Portland, Ore., on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2003. Harper is holding an x-ray of a bullet lodged in his shoulder, a wound he received in Iraq. (AP Photo/Eric Cable)

Army Spc. James Wheeler had just one mission in mind at the beginning of his two-week leave from duty in Iraq: getting home as fast as he could to see his wife and four children.

Now nearing the end of his 15 days of rest and relaxation, Wheeler says his return home to Fort Campbell, Ky., following seven months in a combat zone took some getting used to. His older children, ages 7 and 5, were glad to see him, but his 2-year-old twins needed time to re-acquaint with him. He also found it difficult to unwind.

"In Iraq, you never know what to expect, you never know who's friend or foe," Wheeler said. "You still carry a little of that with you."

"You can't just pick up exactly where you left off," he continued. "But it's good to be home."

Wheeler, 24, was among the first of the troops deployed in Iraq to take part in the military's largest home leave program since the Vietnam War.

When the Defense Department announced the program, some critics saw it as a tacit admission that the Iraqi deployment would last far longer than envisioned. Some veterans groups said that 15 days was just long enough to make soldiers miserable.

Army paratrooper Brian Harper poses outside his parents home in Portland, Ore., Thursday, Oct. 2, 2003. Harper's parents tied yellow ribbons in the tree in front of their home while he was stationed in Iraq. (AP Photo/Eric Cable)

But many returning soldiers said they were grateful to escape the relentless heat of the Iraqi desert, to eat home-cooked meals and to reconnect with their families after nearly a year overseas.

They said they gained new appreciation of their country after witnessing the grinding poverty in Iraq. But they complained that many of their friends and neighbors found it hard to share their sense that their mission in Iraq is worthwhile.

Some experienced that indescribable first moment when they saw and held their newborn children for the first time.

"These young men and women are exactly like the young men and women of other conflicts and other times," Pentagon spokesman Joseph E. Burlas said when the first troops on home leave touched down Sept. 26 at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. "They just want some time off."

For Master Sgt. Marc Greco, 37, of the Mississippi National Guard's 168th Engineering Group, the primary joy at being home in Clinton, Miss., has been spending time with his 1-year-old daughter and his wife, Angela. Greco also appreciates "the long, hot showers with nice water pressure," something hard to find in Iraq.

Greco said he wasn't concerned about the length of his visit.

"I had actually heard rumors about the R&R, and I talked to my wife way ahead of time. I asked her what would she prefer and she said, `Come home!' Anyway, I would have come home for just one day to see my little girl."

There have been eight flights carrying about 2,100 soldiers from Iraq, Burlas said. Some were dropped off in Germany to join families at U.S. bases there, but most continued on to the United States. Soldiers who had been wounded and returned to duty and those with newborn children they hadn't seen were at the top of the list.

The leaves differ from those given to troops in Vietnam, who got five to seven days in any of several Asian cities, Hawaii or Australia but were not permitted to return to the continental United States.

Spc. James Short, 23, of Mechanicsburg, Pa., met his 8-week-old daughter Rachel for the first time when he arrived at BWI Sept. 26. His other daughter, Angelina, almost 2, surprised him by calling him "Daddy" over and over.

"She wasn't even talking when I left," Short said.

"It will definitely be hard to go back," he said. "After seeing my family, it will be like leaving for the first time."

In South Dakota, many members of the National Guard are farmers and business owners who are using their R&R to help make business decisions or plan farm operations, said Army 1st Lt. LeeJay Templeton, 31, of Pierre.

Being home also gives Templeton a chance to spend time with his wife and 6-year-old daughter and help with jobs around the house before winter.

"I kind of think of it as a halftime break," he said.

It was the unlikeliest of wounds that got paratrooper Spc. Brian Harper on the first R&R flight bringing 192 soldiers out of Iraq.

"It was celebratory fire," Harper, 23, said at the home of his parents in Portland, Ore. He said Kurds in Kirkuk were firing into the air in May to celebrate the election of a Kurdish mayor when an AK-47 round hit him in the shoulder.

Harper was upbeat about the role his unit in the 173rd Airborne Brigade is playing in the heavily Kurdish and relatively friendly city in northern Iraq's oil fields.

He said he feels a little out of the loop on issues such as weapons of mass destruction but says he feels the American effort was worth it to get rid of Saddam Hussein, even if no such weapons turn up.

"Once they get Iraq back together it will be a better place than before," he said. "Especially when they get the oil flowing again."