Many still far from home
Published 7:00 pm Friday, December 26, 2003
While Army Spc. Allen Dade is happy, and lucky, to be home for Christmas with his family, many local families will be spending Christmas minus a father, mother, brother, sister or loved one still serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Army National Guard Spc. Joseph Rogers is one of them. His wife, Nicole Rogers, said her husband’s unit was assigned their leave alphabetically, which means he won’t get a two week leave until late January.
He is stationed in Belad, where he is training Iraqi ploice officers.
When he shipped out with the National Guard last spring, he thought he would be home in six months, in plenty of time to see his first child, Hannah, turn two. Instead, his orders were extended to a full year. When he comes home in January Hannah will be nine months older.
For Hannah’s birthday he sent a letter to the Whidbey News-Times, which turned into a story about their separation.
“As I sit here in Iraq, thousands of miles away, I await patiently to finally be able to get home to you and your mother,” Joseph wrote.
Nicole recently heard that Joseph is in the hospital with pneumonia, a product of living in such close quarters.
Nicole and Hannah will celebrate Christmas in Oak Harbor with her parents, Susan and Randy Nesmith, and Joseph’s parents, Marilyn and Ted Rogers.
Several squadrons from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station will also celebrate the holidays away from home.
Prowler squadrons on deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom are: VAQ-128 “Fighting Phoenix” in Iwakuni, Japan and VAQ-137 “Rooks” aboard the USS Enterprise. Patrol and Reconnaissance squadrons currently deployed are VP-1 “Screaming Eagles” in the Western Pacific and VQ-1 “World Watchers” in the Western Pacific and Arabian Sea.
This is a much smaller number than when the war started, when eight of the 14 Prowler squadrons were deployed. It’s been a year of departures and homecomings on Whidbey Island, and for some, the wait goes on.
You can reach News-Times reporter Marcie Miller at mmiller@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/whidbeynewstimes or call 675-6611
