Nov 24, 2006 - 04:06:43 CST
MINOT (AP) - National Guard soldiers who spent Thanksgiving 2005 in Iraq say they're happy to celebrate the holiday with family and friends this year.More than 100 members of Company A of the 164th Engineer Combat Battalion returned to Minot on Nov. 10 after spending about a year in Iraq.
"I definitely have more of an appreciation for my family and friends that stuck by me at home here while I was gone," Guardsman Kyle Mueller said.
He said he also developed a keener sense of the holidays because of having been away.
"When we were overseas, (Thanksgiving) was just kind of another day," he said. "It was just another day you were going out on missions. You don't really notice and celebrate holidays as much. You don't have TV with all the commercials talking about the holidays. It was kind of a different way to celebrate."
Mueller and friend Noah VanVoorhis, both 22 and from Minot, have been celebrating their return by doing what they please instead of following a strict schedule.
"It's been great having no one telling you to get up," Mueller said.
The two soldiers had different Thanksgiving meals in Iraq last year. They had just arrived in the country a week earlier, and initially were given different assignments at different bases.
Mueller, at the headquarters base, got a traditional turkey dinner with the trimmings. VanVoorhis, sent to a small, more primitive base, did not.
"They brought us field chow," he said. "It's pretty much the leftovers from where (Mueller) was at."
VanVoorhis and Mueller later were part of a mission team that saved the life of a drowning Iraqi boy. Mueller said he has some good memories of Iraq, but at the time that he was there, he would wake up every day and wish he was home.
"Noah and I would talk about all the things we were going to do," he said.
VanVoorhis and Mueller became inseparable during their time as roommates at their base in Iraq. Since returning home, they have gone vehicle shopping together and lined up an apartment that they will share while attending Minot State University next semester.
VanVoorhis will be a senior in criminal justice. Mueller was studying at North Dakota State University in Fargo when he was called up. He decided his adjustment to life after Iraq would be easier if he stayed closer to his hometown, so he will be pursuing psychology studies at Minot State.
VanVoorhis finishes his stint with the Guard in March. Mueller will be out in a year, unless he decides to re-enlist.
One Company A soldier did not return home. Spc. Michael Hermanson, 21, of Fargo, who volunteered with the unit, was killed when his vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade this past May.
KLS wrote on Nov 24, 2006 11:39 PM:
jw wrote on Nov 24, 2006 11:04 AM:
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