The three-star general in charge of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq returned home to Fort Bragg on Thursday along with about 350 other paratroopers, some of the very last to leave the nine-year war.
Lt. Gen. Frank Helmick, commander of Fort Bragg and the 18th Airborne Corps, said Thursday that he was both extremely happy to return home at the close of the Iraq war and still trying to process the historical importance of U.S. efforts there.
After U.S. forces ousted Saddam Hussein, Iraq had no military and a police force that was in shambles, Helmick said. The U.S. - over the course of a long and bloody war that cost more than 4,000 American lives - helped Iraq form a military and trained its police force, and provided security for the fledgling democracy to hold elections.
On the same day Helmick arrived home, coordinated bombings in Baghdad killed at least 63 people. Helmick said Iraq has the potential to be a leader in the Middle East, but it has responsibility for its security and future now.
"There's going to be some rough spots in the next year coming up, and the Iraqis are on their own," Helmick said. "We did all we could do."
Helmick also thanked the communities surrounding Fort Bragg for supporting the troops who were deployed to Iraq. And although this war is over, he said, deployments for Fort Bragg's soldiers will continue as long as the fight continues in Afghanistan.
Awaiting arrival
The flight carrying Helmick as well as soldiers from the 18th Airborne Corps and the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team was one of about a dozen of its kind this month. Officials said one more flight, carrying a few dozen soldiers, is bound for Fort Bragg on Saturday.
Excited family members - some in their Sunday best, others donning Santa hats - waited at Green Ramp at Pope Field for their loved ones to land. A military band played "Joy to the World" and "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas."
Four-year-old Sara Coleman insisted to her eight-months pregnant mother, Nicole, that daddy wasn't headed home in an airplane.
"He's coming on Santa's sleigh," the girl said.
Jeanette Hicks arrived at Green Ramp with 18-month-old Benjamin on Thursday morning, more than two hours before the plane carrying her husband, Sgt. Brandon Hicks, would touch down.
But she had run out of things to do at home. After a near-sleepless night, she got out of bed at 5 a.m. and cleaned the house until it sparkled. She washed the sheets and curtains, bleached the counters. Then she got behind the wheel of her husband's prized Honda Civic and drove it to the Army installation so he could see it soon after his return.
Her excitement was mixed with anxiety that the young boy might not remember his daddy's face.
But Benjamin only hesitated briefly before Brandon Hicks took him in his arms. The unfamiliarity went both ways. As Benjamin later walked across the floor, Brandon followed close behind, waiting for him to topple over. Benjamin wasn't walking so well the last time the two saw each other.
It wasn't long before Jeanette coaxed the two syllables out of the shy boy: "da-da."
The reunion was a whirlwind of happiness, with soldiers hugging and kissing spouses and family members all around.
"It's very overwhelming. It's just, there he is. I don't know how else to put it. Insanely happy," Jeanette Hicks said of the moment she saw her husband walking toward her. "After a few minutes, it was almost like he never left. Life is now perfect."
Staff writer John Ramsey can be reached at ramseyj@fayobserver.com or 486-3574.Source: http://fayobserver.com/articles/2011/12/23/1145770
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