Ohio Guard Soldiers Return Home

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- While Army Sgt. Craig Baker was deployed to Kuwait with the Ohio National Guard this year, his 7-year-old son, Colby, laid his head down every night on a pillow case patterned with a smiling photograph of his father.

The pair was finally reunited Tuesday as 70 members of the Guard's 1-134th Field Artillery Unit returned to Columbus after nearly a yearlong deployment in Kuwait, where they helped operate base camps and provided security to soldiers rotating in and out of Iraq.

"It's the little things over the course of the year," said Baker's wife, Tina, at a homecoming ceremony at the Church at Polaris. "The little benchmarks - teeth lost and home runs in baseball games. It makes me realize how much kids need to have their Dads home."

About 1,600 members of the Ohio National Guard's 37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team are returning home in waves of homecoming ceremonies over the next two weeks. The Columbus-based unit was deployed to Kuwait last March as part of the largest Ohio troop mobilization abroad since World War II.

The brigade, spread throughout Ohio, includes an additional 1,100 soldiers from Michigan.

"It's kinda surreal," said 22-year-old Army Spc. Brian McEnaney, of Columbus. "It hasn't really set in yet."

The first thing he wants to do on U.S. soil?

"Probably kiss my girlfriend."

Half of the brigade has returned home already, though some remain in Kuwait, said James Sims, the Guard's deputy director of public affairs.

"The goal is to get every member of the 37th back by Christmas," Sims said.

The original 37th Division, which was retired in 1968, fought in the Pacific during World War II and had 9,800 Purple Heart and seven Medal of Honor recipients. The newer 37th team was created this year as part of the military's reorganization into smaller and more easily deployable brigades.

The 37th includes infantry, artillery and support units that specialize in engineering, maintenance and health care.

Two of the brigade's units - the Michigan 1-126th Cavalry Squadron and the Ohio 1-148th Infantry Battalion - provided security on convoy missions into southern Iraq.

"We've had a lot of soldiers and airmen deployed since the war on terror began," Sims said. "But this unit has kind of a unique bond and linkage to history."

Army Spc. Charles Miller of Columbus said the soldiers in the close-knit 1-137th unit helped each other deal with the stress of being deployed overseas.

"A lot of us have been together for the last five, six years," Miller said as he hugged his 4-year-old son, Dakotah. "We bonded a lot."

Soldiers relied upon calling cards, the Internet and private cell phones purchased in Kuwait to stay connected to their families, Miller said.

Family-centric Guard programs also bolstered spouses and children coping with the prolonged separation. Angela Dyer of Columbus, the Guard's family readiness assistant, initially started her job as a volunteer because she wanted to help families get through the deployment.

Meanwhile, she was dealing with the struggles of separation herself - her husband, Army Capt. Philip Dyer, returned on Tuesday.

"It's been a long year," Angela Dyer said. "We're just glad that he's home."

Carla Meyer, of Columbus, attended the ceremony with her four small children, toting miniature American flags. She didn't know anyone who was deployed, she said, but attended as a show of respect for the soldiers.

"People used to do this for my father," Meyer said. "He was a Marine for 20 years. I thought I'd like to show my children."

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