After the homecoming (Part 1)

Sgt. 1st Class Donald Spock, 9-month-old daughter Madison and wife Kellie share a moment. Company B, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division spent 14 months in Iraq.


After the homecoming
Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Over several months in 2008, Stars and Stripes reporters and photographers traveled to Iraq, Kuwait and Fort Drum, N.Y., chronicling the lives of the “Triple Deuce” — the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division — both soldiers and their families.

As with most deployed units, there was triumph and tragedy. The unit presided over a calming of their area in northern Iraq, but it endured a horrific truck bomb attack that took the life of one of their own and badly wounded others.

Soldiers in the field pressed on.

When they came home, life was not the same. Children had grown and changed. To their babies, they were strangers. Wives had learned to manage with-out them, even while they yearned for their return.

Today and for the next four days, Stripes will tell the story of men sent to war and the people who supported them from thousands of miles away — the longing, the sorrow, the joy of reuniting and the apprehension at what lay ahead.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60776