Yuma soldiers return home after yearlong deployment to Iraq

It was a happy homecoming on Wednesday afternoon for about 20 soldiers of the Yuma-based 1st Platoon of the U.S. Army National Guard's 855th Military Police Company and their families as they returned home after serving a yearlong deployment to Iraq.

“I can't even describe it,” said Spc. Juliann Main. “It's exciting and I'm so happy to be back home.”

For Nicole Stephens, it was an emotional but happy day, to finally have her best friend of nine years back home.

“It has been horrifying,” Stephens said of her friend's deployment. “It's good she is back and with all her limbs intact.”

When asked what was the first thing she was going to do now that she is back home, Main answered, “take a shower without wearing any flip flops.”

Sgt. Christopher Anderson, who worked as a contractor at Yuma Proving Ground, said the first thing he was going to do was take his nearly 5-year-old son to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza.

“It was busy,” Anderson said of the deployment. “We were working in another desert. It was just like being here.”

This most recent deployment was Anderson's third. He deployed to the Middle East twice before while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps.

The soldiers, who left Phoenix earlier in the day in three rented passenger vans, were met at Telegraph Pass by four motorcycle officers from the Yuma Police Department and the Patriot Guard Riders who escorted them to the National Guard Community and Training Center.

As the vans turned off of Araby Road and into the Yuma armory, they drove under a arch of water created by engines from the Yuma Fire Department.

A brief welcome-home ceremony was held for the soldiers upon their arrival, but once it was over they were greeted by the family, friends and loved ones they had left behind last year.

Several banners were displayed inside the training center, including one resembling a U.S. flag made from the handprints of family members.

Vicky Farland, Family Readiness Group chairwoman for the 855th, explained the blue field of the flag was made with the handprints of soldier's children, while the red stripes were made with handprints of parents, spouses older children and other family members.

“They all had a hand in the deployment so they had a hand in making the flag,” Farland said.

While most of the soldiers said they were looking forward to taking some time off, Sgt. Allen Ienn probably summed it up the best.

“I'm looking forward to getting out of this uniform, sitting back in my ‘fat man' chair and taking in civilian life again,” said Ienn, a detective with the Yuma Police Department. “Words can't express how happy I am to be back home.”

Ienn said, for him, the reality that he was finally back home hit about the time they got to the Foothills.

“That is when the emotions started to kick in,” Ienn said. “I knew I was about to see my family and friends again.”

He added that he appreciated the water arch because to him it symbolized washing away the time he had spent in Iraq.

“It was a cleansing that welcomed us home to good ol' Yuma,” Ienn said.

The soldiers of the 855th MPs 1st Platoon completed over 200 combat missions throughout Ninewah Province and the Tigres River Valley during their deployment.

Their missions, included assisting, advising and training Iraqi police, and providing personal security detachments and movement mobility support operations. The unit's goal was to provide a trained, skilled and independent Iraqi police force in order to provide a secure environment for the Iraqi people, Balaban said.

The unit also conducted humanitarian aid missions in support of Provincial Reconstruction Team operations such as food drops, school drops and project proposals for roads, water and electrical improvements.

One of the largest operations conducted was security for the U.S. Embassy representatives overseeing the Iraqi elections, ensuring the voting was conducted in a secure environment without violating free election regulations throughout Ninewah Province.

James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.