101st Troops Come Home

Wednesday morning I went to Fort Campbell to do a story about soldiers returning from a year in Iraq. Family and friends gather in a holding area on the tarmac waiting for the first glimpse of their soldier. They have to wait behind a fence while the planes carrying their loved ones are unloaded. As the soldiers get off the plane they walk right past their cheering families but are still 15 minutes away from the hugs and kisses. The soldiers get into formation for a short welcome home ceremony inside a hanger. (I think the Army has a policy that nothing is official unless there is a ceremony first.) After a few quick speeches the moment everyone was waiting for finally arrives and they are released to visit with their loved ones.

As I was standing there watching everyone hugging and kissing the scene started to pull at my heart strings and my eyes started to get a little misty. I do believe I'm becoming more emotional in my old age. My wife used to tell me she thought I had a hard heart because I never should any emotion. I broke that trend about a year ago while covering the aftermath of Katrina. All of the emotions from the trip finally exploded out of me and I haven't been the same since:) I wrote about my experience last September on this blog.

Any way, it was great seeing families back together again. I will be covering more of the homecomings becasue this is just the begining of 20,000 troops returning to Ft. Cambell.