Maine families welcome Security Force I back home

As the vinyl bay doors at the Army Aviation hangar in Bangor gradually rose Friday evening, the first teardrops slid down Cristin Gardner’s face.

Behind the green door, about 170 Maine Army National Guard soldiers, just back from Iraq, stood in formation anxiously waiting to rush into the arms of their loved ones.

Despite being surrounded by nearly 15 family members and friends, Gardner reached for the hand of Rhonda Weeks, a fellow Guard wife. Amid the mayhem, the two hugged and cried, and just before they began the search for their husbands in the crowd, Gardner softly whispered into her comrade’s ear, “It’s finally over.”

Once the soldiers were dismissed, Gardner fought the crowd in search of her husband. When husband and wife finally found each other they embraced for minutes, as Spc. Troy Gardner, 30, of Ellsworth comforted his sobbing wife.

Then it was 12-year-old Silas and 6-year-old Ashton’s turn. As the two boys greeted their father for the first time in months, they peered from beneath the brims of desert camouflage hats, inscribed with their names, which Troy had sent home from Iraq.

“We had the flat daddy [an enlarged photo of Troy pasted on cardboard],” Cristin said. “But it’s not the same. It’s hard to snuggle up with cardboard.”

Security Force I, a Maine Army National Guard unit that left the state in January 2006, returned to Bangor on Friday night after a yearlong deployment to Iraq. The group was made up of approximately 170 soldiers from numerous Guard units throughout the state but was commanded by the Brewer-based B Company, 3rd Battalion of the 172nd Mountain Infantry. While stationed in Tallil and Baghdad, the unit provided convoy security, route clearance and completed force protection missions.

The unit lost two soldiers during its tour – Staff Sgt. Dale Kelly Jr., 48, of Richmond, and Staff Sgt. David Michael Veverka, 25, a University of Maine student from Jamestown, Pa. The two were killed by a roadside bomb in May 2006, while a third soldier, Pvt. Christopher Fraser, 20, of China, was seriously injured.

Fraser and Kelly’s widow, Nancy Kelly, were at the celebration Friday night, prepared to welcome the unit home.

“The past few days have been tough because March 6 last year was the last time I held my husband,” Kelly said as the tears formed in her sorrowful eyes. “But I am genuinely thrilled to be here tonight to support the wives through this time.

“I’m here physically today because Dale isn’t. I truly feel that they all came home safe today because he is in heaven watching over them, and nothing bad could happen to them – not on his watch.”

Troy Gardner said the deaths of Kelly and Veverka were a “terrible loss,” but he was grateful that everyone else returned safe.

“I’m speechless,” Gardner said as he slid his arm around his wife. “Now I’m just trying to regroup, look for work and restart life.”

While Gardner was deployed, Ashton missed wrestling with dad, and Silas, a Little League all-star pitcher, most wanted his favorite catcher back home to stop his fastball.

Cristin Gardner, however, wanted her partner back. Silas was diagnosed with diabetes last year while Troy was at training, and Cristin immediately felt her husband’s absence.

“The hardest was not having him here for the kids,” Cristin said. “Not having the daddy figure.”

The largest challenge Troy Gardner said he has to face is building back his clientele after being away. He has his own business in Ellsworth, Gardner Builders, where he does construction, especially roofing.

“It’s going to be hard, especially now because it’s the winter,” Gardner said.

“But – I’m home.”