2 Maine soldiers back from Iraq stop at BIA

BANGOR – Two soldiers from Maine enjoyed an unexpected visit home Monday, stopping at Bangor International Airport just long enough for a warm welcome and a hot meal.

Spc. 4th Class Gerard Warren of Robbinston and Pfc. Levi Rollins of Dover-Foxcroft were among nearly 300 Army servicemen and women enjoying the 1 p.m. layover at BIA, on their way to bases in Oklahoma and Washington after spending up to nine months in Iraq.

Heading to Fort Sill, Lawton, Okla., Rollins, 20, identified his base in Iraq only as “Camp Dogwood,” where he spent the last six months collecting and destroying enemy weapons and equipment.

“Hopefully, I’m back for good,” he said. “I will be home for Christmas.”

Notified of the BIA stop only hours earlier, Rollins said he was unable to contact family members in time to plan a visit. That was before his father, Richard Rollins, boarded the troops’ plane moments before takeoff, searching for his son among the hundreds of personnel clad in military fatigues.

“They gave me the microphone and I called him on the PA,” Richard Rollins of Dover-Foxcroft said by phone Monday. “I said, ‘Paging Levi Rollins, come up to the front.'”

Richard Rollins left his office in Plymouth as soon as he heard of his son’s arrival, and almost left the airport moments after arriving, assuming the troops had already departed. An airport employee later escorted him aboard his son’s plane.

Amidst applause from fellow soldiers, the pair hugged and greeted each other for the first time in eight months.

“The whole plane cheered,” said Richard Rollins. “It was pretty spectacular.”

Although the visit lasted only about 10 minutes, it marked the first time Levi Rollins has spoken with his family in a month. A member of the Alpha Battery, 2nd Battalion, 18th Field Artillery, Rollins will return to his home in Dover-Foxcroft after a weeklong debriefing in Oklahoma.

While Rollins looks forward to seeing the rest of his family and fiancee later this month, Warren, 33, of Robbinston, was able to contact family members early yesterday morning to arrange for a brief visit.

“I found out at 4 a.m.,” he said. Warren woke his mother minutes later, calling during a layover in Ireland to alert his family of the unscheduled BIA stop.

“I’ve been pacing since,” said his mother, Mavis Warren, of Calais. “It’s just like it’s a dream.”

Warren, a heavy-equipment operator, performed demolition and explosives work throughout Iraq, including in Baghdad and Tikrit, and searched and cleared villages of weapons.

Dressed in matching American flag T-shirts, 18 family members visited Warren at BIA, seeing him for the first time in 21/2 years.

“We knew we were getting him home, we just never thought we’d get him here,” said Warren’s sister, Renee Leavitt of Robbinston. “It’s a miracle, that’s all we can say.”

The family often waited weeks between e-mails and phone calls throughout Warren’s nine-month deployment.

“It’s been awful,” Mavis Warren said. “It’s like every day you don’t breathe until you hear from him. We haven’t breathed for months.”

A member of the 555th Engineering Battalion, which is attached to the 4th Infantry Division, Warren will return to his wife and three boys in Fort Lewis, Wash., in March after completing his service with the Army.

“I’m moving on to the civilian world,” he said.