National Guard unit back home after 15 months in Iraq

By Hal Bernton
Seattle Times staff reporter

ROD MAR / THE SEATTLE TIMES His face shiny with tears, Sgt. Terry Bradshaw gets a hug from daughter Kayla Montgomery, 12, while talking by cellphone to his wife, who is stationed on active duty in South Korea. Bradshaw, a member of the 1161st Transportation Company of the Washington National Guard, celebrated his 48th birthday on the day he returned.

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Then came new orders. The fighting in Iraq had taken a turn for the worse, and a stretched-out U.S. military needed more boots on the ground. Their unit, based in Ephrata, Grant County, would have to return for another few months of service "My heart just dropped out of me," said Sgt. Terry Bradshaw, who was preparing to rejoin his three children back in Washington. "We found out by opening up a copy of The Stars and Stripes [newspaper for the military] and reading a list of the redeployed units. The mood turned pretty sour."

Shortly past 1 a.m. yesterday, Bradshaw and the rest of the 1161st got their long-delayed reunion inside a large, brick-walled building at the Washington Guard headquarters at Camp Murray. The unit lined up for one last formation amid the cheers and screams of families.

Brig. Gen. Gordon Toney made a few, ever-so-brief welcoming remarks and then wisely stepped aside to allow families to reunite with soldiers in an eruption of hugs, kisses and tears.

Bradshaw's homecoming was sweet but incomplete. His wife, Cheryl, is an active-duty soldier who was deployed to South Korea in May. So as he held close his three children, ages 12 to 20, he also talked via cellphone to his wife on the other side of the Pacific.

"She was glad to hear we finally got back," said Bradshaw, who works at Fort Lewis as a civilian instructor for troops stationed there.

The 1161st's Iraq deployment ranks as the longest of any Washington National Guard unit since World War II. And the soldiers' 15 months in Iraq was three months longer than the yearlong tour of duty that is the stated Pentagon policy. The extension reflects the strains the U.S. military has felt in the face of a stubborn, violent Iraq insurgency.

Home from Iraq Washington National Guard and Northwest Army Reserve units with Washington soldiers that have returned from Iraq: Army Reserve Alpha Company, 5-159th Aviation Regiment, Fort Lewis, returned spring 2004 671st Engineer Company, Portland, returned February 2004 804th Movement Control Detachment, Tacoma, returned October 2003 915th Forward Surgical Team, Vancouver, Wash., returned July 2003 Washington National Guard 1161st Transportation Company, Ephrata, Grant County, returned July 2004 Bravo Company 14th Combat Engineers Battalion, Fort Lewis, returned spring 2004 Alpha Company 1-19th (Special Forces), Buckley, Pierce County, returned spring 2003 Source: Washington Army National Guard and Army Reserve

The 1161st flew back to Washington via Italy, Iceland and Chicago before landing at Boeing Field and piling into a bus for the ride to Camp Murray.

All the soldiers will have three-day passes to go home to their families, then must return for up to five days to complete demobilization, according to Master Sgt. Jeff Clayton, a National Guard spokesman.

For Pilar Kunzelman, the homecoming of her husband, Michael, comes just in time to celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary today with their two teenage children. "I've been really nervous, and my two kids have been trying to calm me down," she said.

Michael Kunzelman already has a must-do list for the next few days: Barbecue a steak, gorge on chocolate ice cream and savor a "mondo mocha" from a favorite coffee shop. He also has a job offer from a Puget Sound steel mill.

Dangerous duty

The soldiers of the 1161st were part of the small, early vanguard of state Guard deployments to Iraq. They arrived in May, 2003, setting up camp outside Baghdad International Airport.

Back then, the U.S. occupation was still young, and it appeared there might be a relatively peaceful rebuilding. But in the months that followed, the insurgency took hold, honing hit-and-run tactics that have claimed hundreds of American and thousands of Iraqi lives.

As truckers, the 1161st drew dangerous duty. Convoys have been a frequent target of the insurgents, and the unit soldiers, commanded by Capt. David Linville, completed nearly 14,000 missions that covered more than 1 million miles. Along the way, they were hit with improvised explosive devices and subject to rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire.

Yet only after months of service in Iraq did all soldiers in the units receive body armor to replace their more-vulnerable flak jackets, according to several soldiers. Soldiers also had to improvise extra protection for truck cabs, adding plywood, sandbags and other shields. And for months on end, soldiers said their truck convoys lacked one of the standard defenses to fend off insurgent attacks — an escort by a truck mounted with a .50-caliber gun.

	ROD MAR / THE SEATTLE TIMES Spc. Audra Hauer gives a big welcoming hug to her fiancé, Spc. Rick Fyhrie, at a homecoming celebration at Camp Murray early yesterday morning.

But the 1161st showed strong skills and dogged perseverance in completing the missions, according to Guard officers. And it did not suffer any fatalities, a major accomplishment considering the miles the soldiers traveled.

Six soldiers did receive significant wounds.

Spc. Audra Hauer, was one of the first. Her truck was hit June 12, 2003, by an explosive device concealed in a black plastic bag. The explosion slammed her against the truck cab, fracturing her back and sending chunks of shrapnel into her body.

Hauer has completed a lengthy recovery and yesterday morning reunited with her fiancé, Spc. Rick Fyhrie. The two were high-school sweethearts in Ellensburg and had gone off to war together before being separated by Hauer's accident and evacuation to state-side medical care.

The extended deployment has forced them to cancel a series of wedding dates. The latest date was Aug. 7 — but now they're thinking of getting married sometime in the next few months, then attending college. Hauer plans to major in broadcast journalism.

Families and soldiers are being prepped by military counselors for what sometimes is a difficult readjustment. A recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine indicated that one in six soldiers returning from Iraq shows signs of post-traumatic stress or related disorders.

Some of the most vulnerable are those who suffered through traumatic attacks.

Jeffrey Elliott, injured in the same blast that wounded Hauer, is still struggling with the emotional aftermath of his Iraq duty. He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and also has a serious back injury.

While Hauer has made a strong recovery from her shrapnel wounds, the stress of the roadside attacks in Iraq has also left a mark. She still feels anxious when caught in a traffic jam. And whenever she sees trash on the road, she instinctively swerves to try to get out of the way

"It's just second nature," Hauer said.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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