Penobscot to welcome home injured soldier

PENOBSCOT – Staff Sgt. Harold Gray is coming home, and the local Fire Department wants to make sure he comes home in style.

Gray, 37, was critically injured in Iraq in December 2004 while on duty with the Maine Army National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion. He has been hospitalized since then, being treated for wounds that included serious injuries to his eyes and left arm as well as a brain injury from shrapnel.

Gray is one of three members of the 133rd Engineer Battalion who were injured when insurgents attacked their convoy in Mosul.

He has made some progress, according to his father, George Gray of Penobscot, but it has been slow.

“He answers you with his eyes – if he wants to, and he’ll give you a ‘thumbs up,’ if he wants to. He’s kind of stubborn, you know,” George Gray said Wednesday. “We’re hoping that when he gets home here that he’ll come around.”

The younger Gray has a good support system, with his wife, Laurie, and three daughters, Natalie, Mercedes and Elizabeth, as well as his parents and a large extended family in the area, as well as friends and neighbors.

“I never expected to talk to so many people,” the elder Gray said. “Local people and the whole state of Maine, I’m so proud of them.”

The younger Gray is scheduled to be released from Togus and return to his home and family in Penobscot on Feb. 10. This won’t be his first trip home; he has been back for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and most recently for his birthday.

According to Penobscot Fire Chief Bim Snow, local firefighters want to make sure his trip from Augusta is a memorable one. Snow said he is arranging an escort for Gray for the trip home.

“We’ve done this for others who’ve come home here in Hancock County,” Snow said. “That gave me the idea. Where he’s been injured and in Togus for over a year, we wanted to make sure he had a good welcome home. I talked with his wife and she thought it was a nice idea.”

Already more than 20 fire departments in Waldo and Hancock counties have signed up to participate.

“I’ve talked to all the departments from Prospect to Palermo [in Waldo County],” Snow said. “They plan to meet him at Tobey’s Store in Palermo and take him right along Route 3. The Hancock County departments will meet him on Verona Island.”

Hancock County departments from as far away as Ellsworth and Deer Isle have agreed to participate in the escort. Usually they’ll go from town line to town line, Snow said, but several departments already have said they want to continue farther on the route.

Any other fire departments interested in participating in the welcome home escort can contact Snow at 326-4252.