Home, sweet home

Roaring crowd welcomes I Corps home from Iraq

The energy and emotions were palpable for the hundreds of family members and friends gathered at Wilson Sports and Fitness Center on JBLM Lewis North the evening of March 3.

The return of the main body of I Corps, numbering nearly 400 Soldiers, ended a 12-month deployment to Iraq, where they served as the headquarters element for Multi-National Corps-Iraq, which became part of U.S. Forces-Iraq.

Brigadier Gen. Jeff W. Mathis III, acting commanding general of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, welcomed the troops home and made sure families were quickly reunited.

“I know you all don’t want to hear me do a long speech, so what I want to do is say we welcome you back home,” Mathis said. “You had a great and successful deployment.”

Mathis ushered in a round of applause for the Soldiers and wished them welcome.

“You guys have a safe day off and get back for reintegration,” he said.

Following Mathis’ remarks, the Soldiers in formation were immediately dismissed to their waiting loved ones.

Families and Soldiers came together in a mix of balloons, signs, tears and laughter.

Hope Reed, wife of Warrant Officer Timothy Reed, said she had been looking forward to this day for a long time.

“I’m excited, that’s for sure,” Reed said.

During the deployment Reed was able to make video calls with her husband via an Internet program, she said.

“We were able to connect very often, if I stayed up late at night,” Reed said. “He would do an e-mail, which would text me on my cell phone.”

Reed said she was able to share a very special moment with her husband, thanks to the video call.

“Our son was born while he was over there,” she said. “We did (a video call) just after he was born.”

Timothy was unable to return home for the birth and seeing the baby for the first time via video was an emotional moment for the couple, Reed said.

“He cried — we all cried,” she said.

Kelli Suri, wife of Sgt. Maj. Frank Suri, of 56th Army Band, said that although this was his second deployment — the first one being Operation Desert Storm — it was the first for her.

“We weren’t married when he went the first time,” Suri said.

The couple has three sons. Their eldest son, Tyler, 21, is a Black Hawk crew chief in 3rd Infantry Division based at Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

Having the ability to talk to her husband online made the deployment easier for Suri.

“Having (Internet video phone) it was a very easy (separation from kids),” Suri said. “Daddy was very involved in the mornings and evenings.”

Band spouses stuck together during the deployment, she said.

“We did it all together; got through it together,” Suri said. “Now we’re going to end it together.”

Again reunited, the family plans to take a vacation to Disney World in April.

Edith Phillips made the trip from Arizona to greet her daughter, Sgt. Michelle Halona.

Mother and daughter stayed connected via e-mail and letters, Phillips said.

“We set an appointment every day for 10 o’clock,” Phillips said. “She would call me then.”

Phillips now plans to catch up with her daughter and sharing things she might have missed out on over the past year, she said.

“We got a lot of snow this year,” Phillips said. “It’s the first time in a long time that we got so much snow.”

Phillips is a true Army mom with two other children in the Army, including a son currently deployed to Iraq, she said.

Phillips said she worried for her daughter’s safety but knew her daughter carried Navaho paraphernalia with her into the combat zone as part of their native heritage.

“Michelle brought them with her to protect her,” Phillips said.

Not all of the returning Soldiers had family on hand to greet them.

Specialist Edwin Medina, a mail orderly with the unit, said he would have to wait to see his parents in South Korea.

“I am getting stationed in Korea next,” Medina said. “I can’t wait to see them.”

Medina said I Corps processed more than two million pounds of mail during the tour.

“It was a very hard job,” Medina said. “I was glad to do it.”

Headquarters Soldiers and staffers of I Corps assumed command and control of Multi-National Corps-Iraq, performed several predeployment site surveys, and executed a thorough handoff with XVIII Airborne Corps, their predecessors in Baghdad.

Despite sound preparations and a quick start, however, the corps faced difficult challenges and a punishing workload.

From early on, corps command established solid partnerships with Iraqi counterparts.

U.S. Forces-Iraq leadership is transitioning from I Corps, commanded by Lt. Gen. Charles Jacoby, to III Corps, of Fort Hood, Texas, led by Lt. Gen. Robert Cone.

More than 900 Soldiers and civilians from I Corps Headquarters deployed to Iraq. This was the first deployment in direct support of combat operations for the entire corps headquarters since the Korean War.

To see images of I Corps' return, visit the following gallery:

I Corps Soldiers return