Troops deployed for more than a year return to Quad-Cities

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By Tom Saul | Wednesday, June 04, 2008 |

Karen Sanchez, of Carbon Cliff, hugs her son, Brian Sanchez, who returned from Iraq Tuesday. (Jeff Cook/QUAD-CITY TIMES) Buy this Photo

For the past 13 months, all Karen Sanchez could do was worry about her soldier son serving in Iraq.

“I didn’t want him there,” the Carbon Cliff, Ill., mother said as she waited in the terminal at Quad-City International Airport for a flight from Texas carrying Brian Sanchez and other members of Davenport-based Army Reserve 339th Military Police Company.

“I have nothing against the military, but we’re in a time of war,” she said.

But when her son appeared with his comrades-in-arms through a phalanx of American flags courtesy of the Patriot Guard Riders, Karen Sanchez’s days and nights of anxiety seemed to evaporate as she hugged him and kissed him on the cheek.

“Welcome home,” she whispered.

Brian Sanchez was among about 15 soldiers from the company who returned to the Quad-Cities following more than a year of deployment, with about 11 months of it in Iraq. A spokesman for the company did not return phone calls seeking comment on deployment of the soldiers.

Sanchez said he was deployed in Ramadi in central Iraq, about 68 miles west of Baghdad. It is the capital of Al Anbar province. Among the things he missed most were wearing regular clothes, driving his own car and Harris Pizza.

For the time being, he is back home where he will be able to resume studies at Black Hawk College, he said. But he still has three years left to serve in the Reserves, and redeployment “is always a possibility,” he said.

In the meantime, Sanchez said, he is looking forward “to doing nothing for a while. I just want to spend some time with my family and friends.”

The next several days will be “Brian Sanchez day,” his mother said. “Whatever he wants to do, that is what we’ll do. It will be all about Brian. If he wants to go out someplace to eat, we’ll go out to eat. If he wants mom to cook for him, I’ll cook.”

Alex Sanchez, 13, Brian’s younger sister, said she missed her big brother. She held off on having her eighth-grade graduation party last week, hoping that her brother would be home in time to attend.

“Now that he’s back, we can have a combination graduation party and his coming home party,” she said.

The soldiers were greeted by family, friends and supporters. Jim Olsen, of the Patriot Guard, said his members were there simply “to support the troops.” They have been to more than 100 events honoring veterans and active duty soldiers in the past few years.

“We don’t come out unless we are invited by a family member, and one of the family members invited us,” Olsen said.

Tom Saul can be contacted at (563) 383-2453 or tsaul@qctimes.com.