Local reservists return from Iraq
LUZERNE TWP. – It was a low-key, late-night homecoming for members of the 298th Transportation Company Detachment 2 who arrived at the Hiller Army Reserve Center at 12:40 a.m. Saturday. Most of the 19 members of the unit who had deployed 15 months ago found their own way home from Fort Drum, N.Y., but five came home as a unit, ending their deployment the way it began, with a fire truck and police escort in Brownsville.
Trucks from the Hiller Volunteer Fire Department and two Brownsville police cars met the bus carrying the soldiers in Washington County and with lights flashing but their sirens silent because of the hour, escorted the bus across the Lane Bane Bridge, through town and up High Street to the Reserve Center.
There, a lone dusk-to-dawn light lit the parking lot where their families stood with homemade signs welcoming them home.
“It was a very, very long time, but everyone is home and back safe, and that’s all that matters. They did what they said they’d do,” said Mary Jane Smoley of Pleasant Hills.
Her son, Staff Sgt. Brian Smoley, called the unit into its last formation before beginning their 90-day leave.
“Our mission while we were gone was fuel haulers, just as it is here,” SSG Smoley told the families.
“We completed over 400 missions. The unit is smaller right now, but everyone who left from Hiller came home safely.
“We had a lot of soldiers who had alternative means of transportation back from Ft. Drum.”
Retired Hiller Fire Chief Pat Ballon asked to be notified once the unit is off leave and back at the Reserve Center for activities.
“The guys from the fire department want to come up when you’re all back to thank you all,” Ballon said.
The 298th Transportation Company, Detachment 2, had been attached to the 223rd Transporation Company from Norristown for the deployment to Iraq.
Smoley confirmed that two members of the 223rd were killed when their vehicle hit a landmine during an early mission, but he said no other members of the unit were injured during their deployment.
The unit returned Fort Drum, N.Y., on July 23, but family members had little idea when they would actually be coming home.
Don Smoley said his son kept him posted by cell phone, as other members of the unit did with their families.
“He called me (Thursday) and said they’d be leaving 2:00 Friday from Fort Drum. I’ve been to Syracuse before, so I had an idea of how long it would take them. He had a cell phone, so we got a call when he got to Niagara Falls and 279,” Don Smoley said.
Sharon Johnston of Dunbar attempted to coordinate some type of homecoming celebration for the members of the unit and tried to contact the families of the soldiers, but the information chain had broken down over time, Honston said.
“When I got up here, there were two people sleeping in the parking lot. They had been here since 7 p.m., that’s how badly the family support network had broken down,” said Sharon Johnston of Dunbar.
Johnston and other family members were on hand to welcome home her sister, Sgt. Wendy Stephens.
“You said not to cry,” Stephens’ niece Alyssa Johnston said as she greeted her aunt.
“It’s OK. I’m allowed to cry now,” Stephens told her.
Sharon Johnston has been watching her sister’s two turtles and her dog during the deployment.
While the turtles remained at home, Stephens’ dog, Brandi, was on hand for the homecoming, dressed in camouflage to match his owner’s uniform. Sharon Johnston said she has been carrying a small piece of her sister’s uniform around on her key chain awaiting her safe return.
Hugs and kisses were plentiful.
Sgt. Bill Crawford of Cameron, W.Va., had a wide grin on his face even as his family and his fianc?, Rebekah Briggs, were getting into the car to take him back home.
“It’ll be there for a while,” Crawford said.