FAIRBANKS — They’re almost all home now.
Planeloads of returning
soldiers from the more than 4,000-member 1st Stryker Brigade Combat
Team, 25th Infantry Division from Fort Wainwright have been returning to
Fairbanks on an almost daily basis. Most of the remaining soldiers are
scheduled to return from their year-long deployment to Afghanistan in
the next few days.
from newsminer
by
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| Pfc. Ernesto Bravo kisses his daughter Jessalyn, 4, left, as he is greeted by his family including Jessalyn's twin brother Griffin, top right, and 11-month old sister Natalyn, back right, as well as friend Bella Needham, 3, front right, as another flight of soldiers with the 1-25 Stryker Brigade Combat Team returns to Fort Wainwright Thursday morning, April 26, 2012 after serving a year-long deployment in Afghanistan. Eric Engman/News-Miner |
Samantha Baker, wife of Sgt. Damon Baker, took it to the next level preparing for her husband’s arrival. She carried a sign that towered over the crowd with her husband’s name and a light-up arrow pointing to where she stood. The folks at Denali Industrial Supply helped her build it, she said.
The sign did its job.
“Somebody came up to me and said, ‘I think that’s you over there,’” Damon Baker said after he was reunited with his wife.
Baker has been to war before on two previous overseas deployments, but this homecoming is different because it’s his last. Now that he’s home from this deployment, he plans to leave the Army and settle more permanently in the Interior where he’s planning to work for a civilian construction company.
With the brigade members just about all back at Fort Wainwright, attention turns to a community welcome home event scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. May 12.
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| Sgt. 1st Class Aaron Delozier helps his son Korbin, 4, carry his pack as another flight of soldiers with the 1-25 Stryker Brigade Combat Team returns to Fort Wainwright Thursday morning, April 26, 2012 after serving a year-long deployment in Afghanistan. Eric Engman/News-Miner |
A military parade, including a majority of the Stryker Brigade’s members, will pass through downtown Fairbanks and head to Pioneer Park, where a picnic is planned. Organizers of the Salute To Our Military Parade — S.T.O.M.P. — hope to have thousands of people lining the route.
A reviewing stand and bleachers for dignitaries and the families of service members killed or wounded in the wars will be set up on Second Avenue.
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