“Emotional homecoming greets Hamilton-based unit” |
| Emotional homecoming greets Hamilton-based unit Posted: 02 Jan 2011 09:11 PM PST MISSOULA - Wives, husbands, parents and little boys and girls waited with smiles and tears for the doors of Gate No. 4 to swing open late Thursday night at Missoula International Airport. And for some American heroes to walk through them. As the midnight hour approached, the commercial flight arrived, and off the plane came 14 soldiers of the Montana Army National Guard, returning home from a yearlong deployment to Afghanistan. In doing so, Spc. Donnie Chaney of Ronan was following his father's orders. "I told him to be careful, and to come home in one piece," said Larry Chaney as he waited for his son to disembark. "And if he couldn't come home in one piece," added Marisa Chaney, the soldier's wife, "to just come home." Mission accomplished at precisely 11:35 p.m. The couple's daughter, 6-year-old Elain, joined her parents in a tear-filled, joyous hug in the middle of the small crowd gathered at the airport for the celebration. In all, 25 soldiers with the 495th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion flew into seven Montana airports Thursday night from Fort Lewis, Wash., where they debriefed after spending a year in Afghanistan as part of the 230th Vertical Engineers - a Hamilton-based unit. They were greeted by friends and family, and in the case of Ken and Bernadette Vick, complete strangers. Vick is a member of the American Legion; Bernadette, the Montana district president for the Legion Auxiliary. "Anybody who puts their lives on the line deserves someone from the outside to welcome them home," said Ken Vick, whose own son is currently on a yearlong tour in Iraq. These soldiers' lives were, in fact, on the line. In Afghanistan, they embarked on dangerous construction missions deep inside the country, sometimes a month in length, while taking fire from Taliban forces. Army Pfc. Harrison Woodcock, a 2009 Big Sky High School graduate, was greeted by his parents and grandparents, as well as his friend Rose Dickson. Patti Woodcock called the year of her son's deployment "long, hard and stressful." "You never knew where they were, or if they were safe," she said. The secrecy of the missions and the soldiers' location were a source of stress for all families involved. After arriving in Missoula, Donnie Chaney spent Thursday night with his family in Ronan, then spoke with the Missoulian on Friday. His year in Afghanistan was long, the work important. The engineers built police stations, radio towers, outposts, perimeters and other military structures in various parts of Afghanistan on missions that were sometimes weeks in length. Occasionally, gunfire would erupt from unseen enemies, or a mortar would explode. Rarely did the soldiers return fire. "At first, it was nerve-wracking," said Chaney, who is planning to enlist full-time in the Army and train to become an Army Ranger. "But with the training we got here before we left and in Hawaii, all those warrior drills came into play. It became somewhat second nature to us." Chaney's contact with his family was either impossible or frequent, depending on where he was in the country. Mainly, he kept up with the family news through e-mail. But time on the video-chat Skype service was coveted. "That definitely helped," he said. "I got to watch my daughter grow up there, showing me all her school things." Marisa Chaney made it clear that she didn't want to hear combat stories, or rounds of gunfire her husband had taken, or anything that reminded her how dangerous it all was. "That's why he talked to his dad about that," she said. Besides the birthdays and anniversaries and holidays he missed, Chaney also lost two grandparents while he was gone - one on the day before a long mission. "That was tough," he said. But things are better now that he's home. A mixed martial arts fighter, Chaney spent New Year's Eve watching UFC fights on pay-per-view, and gave his daughter her "second Christmas." "There are lots of presents still underneath the tree," said Marisa Chaney. But the greatest gift of all showed up Thursday night, wrapped in camouflage. Reporter Jamie Kelly can be reached at 523-5254 or at jkelly@missoulian.com.
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