SCHOOL WELCOMES ‘OUR HERO’ HOME FROM IRAQ
Their letters answered
Soldier from Coplay visits school to thank students who wrote him in Iraq.

By Andrew C. Martel | Of The Morning Call
November 4, 2008

The soldiers in Iraq loved the gummy candies. The pretzels and potato chips sent over were popular, too.

But Army Sgt. Graham Hantz said he most appreciated the notes of encouragement he received from some second-graders back home.

”Thanks for all you send, but most of all, thanks for not taking your freedom for granted. God Bless!” Hantz wrote the second-graders of St. Elizabeth Regional School in Fullerton last year while he was in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

On Monday, just two weeks after he returned home, Hantz visited St. Elizabeth’s. He said he wanted to personally thank his supporters, some of whom were only 2 when Iraq was invaded.

Hantz, a 30-year-old chaplain’s assistant, grew up in Coplay and enlisted in the Army two years ago. While his unit of the 10th Mountain Division received care packages from all over the United States, Hantz said he was touched to receive treats and notes from so close to home. He told the students that their letters comforted him during his long deployment.

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As much as any rifle or tank, faith has been a standard borne by Army Gen. Charles “Hondo” Campbell in a career spanning four decades.

The moral compass afforded by religion has “been a huge benefit,” Shreveport native Campbell, head of the 800,000-man U.S. Army Forces Command and Fort McPherson, Ga., said in a recent phone interview.

“I have sought to harken diligently to the word of the Lord and, in doing so, I have prospered … in virtually every aspect of my life — in the spiritual, the moral, the physical, the intellectual, the material,” said Campbell, who will talk on this and other subjects Thursday morning at the Mayors’ Prayer Breakfast at the Bossier Civic Center in Bossier City.

“The spiritual dimension of a soldier is an important dimension. And we’ve learned in the Army that leaders have to be attentive to the spiritual dimension of a soldier’s life: the moral dimension, the relational dimension as well as the professional, the intellectual and the physical dimensions.”

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MARENGO – When Capt. Raymond Ayers served as an Army chaplain in Iraq the past year, he said he knew the Lord would let him come home safely.

But he had no idea how many of his friends and neighbors would be waiting for him when he got there. At least 400 Marengo community members and school children greeted Ayers along the streets, outside their homes, and at Zion Lutheran School, where Ayers is an associate pastor.

Ayers rode in a convertible PT Cruiser down Route 20 with his two children, Anneliese and Nate, vigorously waving at passersby and videotaping the homecoming with a grin on his face. Veterans, Patriot Guard Riders and Marengo’s Fire Protection District and Rescue Squad celebrated in what became a town parade filled with waving flags, banners and cheers.

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By Army Sgt. Amy Wieser Willson
North Dakota National Guard

BISMARCK, N.D., (10/24/2008) – Nobody wants to marry a jerk or jerkette, but sometimes it happens.

“How?” is something many divorced and unhappy couples will ponder for years.

“What went wrong?”

A new program in the North Dakota National Guard can help Soldiers and Airmen pinpoint possible problems and key in on positive spouse traits before they ever consider pondering the how or why of an unhappy marriage.

Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge, or P.I.C.K., “goes over the head and the heart because when you meet some­body, the heart takes over,” said Jane Johnson, a full-time licensed social worker with the North Dakota National Guard.

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ATLANTA (ABP) — “How do you plan to stay in touch with your family while you’re deployed?” Army chaplain James “Jim” Kirkendall frequently asks young soldiers.

It’s one of the many topics Kirkendall addresses during personal visits with military personnel of the Army’s 95th Division, based in Oklahoma City, in preparing them for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.

As one of about 600 Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-endorsed chaplains and pastoral counselors, Kirkendall extends the ministry of the Fellowship to members of the military and their families. Those ministries were recognized as part of Pastoral Care Week, Oct. 20-26.

Soldiers are required to attend mandatory briefings by many Army departments–from the judge advocate general to family readiness. During these sessions, Kirkendall addresses the emotional impact of deployment and suicide prevention. He shares experiences from his own year-long deployment in Iraq.

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GRAFENWOEHR, Germany – All Eva Creel wanted for 12 months was for her husband to come home from Afghanistan to be by her side.

When he returned, she found she wanted nothing more than her own personal space.

Creel – like many spouses of Soldiers returning from downrange – discovered firsthand that the rush of emotions after redeployment can both draw a couple together, and pull them apart.

“When they’re gone you miss them terribly, but you become very independent… I had my routine, my schedule, and my plans… he kind of got in the way of all those things,” Creel explained.

Redeployment is an overwhelming joy and a rollercoaster ride of emotions, including everything from feelings of guilt from a newfound independence to the insecurity and frustration of getting to know one another again.

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