Oregon welcomes medevac home from Iraq
SALEM, Ore. -- On just their second day home, soldiers from C/7-158 Medevac make one last appearance in their worn camo uniforms for a Demobilization Ceremony.
As soldiers stand at attention, their loved ones crowd the hangar for speakers such as General Raymond F. Rees and Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
The crowd watches quietly as Major Geoff Vallee, pilot and commander of the Medevac unit accepts a state flag that signifies the safe return of every soldier with honor.
In the end the 234 Army band plays The Army Song and soldiers return to the arms of family and friends, reflecting on their next moves.
Husband and wife, personnel specialist Sgt. Richard Vincent, 38, and Tawnya Vincent, 39, of Keizer, Ore., sit with their 3-year-old daughter and 6-year-old daughter, happy to be a family again.
“Just having him around the house, helping with the girls, just being part of the family,” says Tawnya Vincent about her husband’s return.
For Richard Vincent, tears fill his eyes just thinking about the first time he embraced his family. He looks forward to “spending time with my girls, giving my wife a break, reuniting and relearning what my girls like to do and what they are into now.”
The sergeant, who spoke about missing his family everyday while in Iraq, hopes this will be his last deployment. He doesn’t want to miss more recitals, birthdays, holidays, events like kindergarten graduation and cutting down the Christmas tree.
“I have three years left, and I’m going to retire,” says Richard Vincent. “So I am looking at one year at a time.”
Crew chief Sgt. Mike Buchan, 26, of Salem, Ore., is just starting his family. Only a few days ago he reunited with girlfriend Sallie Bakke, 33, of Salem, Ore., and his 4-month-old daughter.
“The last time I saw her she was 5 days old,” says Buchan holding his new, tiny child.
Buchan plans on “just hanging out with her (his daughter) and Sallie, just being at home. We’re going to Las Vegas for Valentine’s Day.”
Bakke is relieved to have another parent in the equation. “He hasn’t got to change a diaper yet,” she says with a laugh.
Buchan and crew chief Sgt. Rob Boyce, 45, of Keizer, Ore., will return in several months to their jobs as mechanics for the Medevac unit in Salem.
“There’s not much of a change from what I do on the civilian side compared to what I do in Iraq,” says Boyce -- minus that fact that he was working as a mechanic in a war zone.
Despite the hardships of the past year, Boyce just re-enlisted for another six years to finish up twenty years of service and retire.
For now it’s the little things that Boyce will enjoy, like drinking fresh milk, fixing the kitchen sink and bonding with his wife and two teenage daughters.
Crew chief Sgt. Joseph Cunningham, 31, from Springfield, Ore., is looking on the positive side of reintegrating to civilian life with his 6-year-old daughter and fiancé.
“The first thing I did was sat down and drink a beer,” says Cunningham about his first day back home.
For the ceremony, he dons his uniform for hopefully the last time -- at least a while. “I’m looking forward to going back to my civilian lifestyle, where I can choose to put jeans on in the morning, not wake up so early take some time off,” says Cunningham who has about three months off before continuing his job as a dispatcher at the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Other soldiers are returning home without a job lined up.
After her first deployment, mechanic Spc. April Brennan, 43, of Grants Pass has been inspired to attend nursing school after a few months of relaxing with her family. “Before a deployment you take your home life for granted a little bit,” says Brennan. “I’ve missed them a lot.”
The future is full of possibilities, but for right now soldiers are focused on the children on their laps and the kisses planted on their cheeks.
After a year of angst families can now relax.
“The biggest difficulty I think for me was watching the news and hearing about incidents that were occurring,” says Paul Vasquez, 52, of Oregon City, Ore., about his daughter 26-year-old pilot Lt. Sabrina Vasquez. “One time a helicopter was down and we had to wait to days to find out whether it was somebody from this company or not, that was the roughest part for us.”
As is often said in the military world, deployments are often more difficult for those left behind then soldiers themselves.
For now family members can rest easy knowing that soldiers from C/7-158 Medevac are safe from harm -- until the next deployment.
Cali Bagby embedded with the Oregon Army National Guard from Charlie Company, 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation, a Medevac Unit based out of Salem, Ore., for KVAL.com. Her work has been published in the Washington Post and the Eugene Weekly.
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