Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter



CAT Tracks for October 16, 2005
WELCOME BACK!

Finally...some POSITIVE Cairo news! From today's Southern Illinoisan...


Troops welcomed home 1644th Transportation Company soldiers greeted by family in Cairo

BY ANDREA HAHN
THE SOUTHERN

CAIRO - Dustin Tomanovich can't wait for married life. He's even looking forward to mowing the lawn.

And a cold breeze ... and trees ... and ...

Tomanovich, a specialist with the Illinois National Guard, was one of the 170 Illinois National Guard soldiers of the 1644th Transportation Company who came home to Illinois Saturday. About two dozen arrived in Cairo at 10 a.m.

Tomanovich and his wife are from West Frankfort. They were married just two weeks before he was deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Amy didn't have a lot to say about how she dealt being newly married and then apart. She was too busy beaming at her husband. She did say her mother helped with her sadness - and so did the frequent phone calls from Dustin. One particularly long conversation cost the couple $300, she said.

Dustin said when he was unable to talk to his young wife, he talked about her. A lot. "I bragged about her all the time," he said. "I have the best, so I just had to brag."

Mary Baker, whose husband is Sgt. Chris Baker, the first soldier to walk into the National Guard armory in Cairo where the homecoming was staged, said they also have a first anniversary to celebrate. The couple married two days before Sgt. Baker was deployed. It was a quick move after eight years of being together.

"I'm going to fix him whatever he wants to eat," she said. "He complained about the food a lot."

The top layer of their wedding cake is waiting in the freezer for a delayed first anniversary celebration, too.

Spc. Melissa Jones really didn't want to waste her time talking to reporters. The Odin native had a little boy to play with and she just really wanted to get on with getting home.

Mikey, her 4-year-old son, waited for his mother in a uniform similar to the one she wore. He waved an American flag while he waited inside the armory for the bus bringing his mother home to him.

"Play with her," he said promptly when asked what he most wanted to do with his mother when she was home to stay.

And they did. Within minutes of rejoining her family, the pair was shooting silly string in between hugs.

Jones had enlisted, gone through basic training, and was almost immediately deployed. Her uncle, Larry Jones, retired after a career in the U.S. Army, said he wasn't surprised when his niece was sent overseas.

"Transportation and military police - that's where they had a need and she fit in with that," he said.

Larry Jones had been to Iraq in the first wave of American military presence, as part of Operation Desert Storm. He said in some ways it was easier on the family when he left - even though he left behind an infant son - because he was a career soldier and expected active duty.

He said it's different for citizen soldiers who hold down civilian jobs along with their military service.

"They have a new role when they go to war," he said. "They have to be able to switch into that role."

He said the capabilities of modern communication and the military's efforts to keep the families informed help both the soldiers and those waiting at home to cope with the separation. In this case, Web-cams and chat rooms kept Spc. Jones in touch with her son.

"I'm really proud of her - especially because she was so new to the military," Larry Jones said. He noted he and his niece would have some shared adventures to talk about now - things like sand spiders and how close to the camels it was wise to get.

"Her experience will be different than any other conflict, though," he said. "Each one is different."

Jones said one thing he thought might be the same was the desire to eat all the food unavailable in Iraq.

On his way out the door to take Melissa home, he heard that she was already talking about "real hot dogs and hash-brown casserole."

"See?" he said.

The 1644th Transportation Company had been deployed for a yearlong tour. They were mobilized in August 2004. About 170 soldiers returned home on Saturday. Besides the homecoming in Cairo, busses of soldiers also stopped at Rock Falls and East St. Louis as well as Camp Lincoln in Springfield.