I was at the Oktoberfest parade in La Crosse Wisconsin this Saturday and the welcome that the returning National Guard unit received is one that I wish every returning service member could experience.
Background. All three of my sons have served in the GWOT. Dan did two tours in the Gulf on the USS George Washington and was serving when the GW was sent to New York on 9/11. Jon is a Lt. with a National Guard unit currently deployed in Kuwait. Mike is also a Guardman, part of the 32nd Engineers, located in Onalaska, just north of La Crosse.
The 32nd was federalized as part of the 2-127th Infantry and tasked with providing convoy security. Though the unit was based in Kuwait, they spent most of their time in Humvees driving throughout Iraq. I understand that Mike put in over 50,000 miles driving in Iraq. Three battalion members died in Iraq and several more were badly wounded, all by IEDs.
The Guard is very different than the regular Army. The soldiers don't live on or near a base. The soldiers are older and more settled, with children and deep ties to the community. Many have spent years in their company or platoon. Spouses and friends are not necessarily connected to each other, since each citizen/soldier has their own set of friends and relations. When their deployment is done, they will go back to their jobs or college, though they still owe years of service.
From the day the unit was notified of the deployment, the La Crosse area was very supportive. A farewell ceremony was marred only by the political pitch by a Mark Green (Rep. congressman running for governor) supporter. There was a farewell parade that was broadcast on the local station. Copies of the ceremony and parade were made available free by the station to all family members. The newspaper ran articles about the unit on a regular basis and sent a reporter to Mississippi to follow their training. The Family Support Unit did a great job, with many donations by local businesses.
Oktoberfest is a big thing in La Crosse, even though Norwegians outnumber Germans there. It is the big community festival, with lots of partying by the college students. The parade is large. It runs 3.5 miles and takes 3-4 hours to watch, if you can get near the route. Units spend over 1.5 hours on the route, once they get to the starting point. For a city of 50,000, just about everyone in the town is marching or watching with many out of town visitors.
My son was skeptical when informed that he would be marching in the parade. He was told that he owed it to the city for the support that had been shown. He considered that spending a year in Iraq might just be enough thanks. Anyway, he is enough of a soldier to know that you never volunteer for anything, especially if the alternative is spending the weekend partying with friends. More modestly, he wasn't sure he needed thanks for something that he couldn't avoid. Of course, he could have avoided it by simply not enlisting in the Guard. He did so after 9/11 when it was clear that the Guard was going to be used overseas.
Nevertheless, he joined his unit in the parade. We were the first unit in the second section. The soldiers went in front, handing out flags, candy, necklaces and wristbands. They quickly ran out of everything but flags, which they must have had thousands of. They were followed by a van playing music, primarily "The boys are back in town", but also some country dreck. Thankfully not Lee Greenwood, but "Have you forgotten about Bin Laden," which of course our president very publicly has. Then came the families and a float, which served to carry the supplies and the children and parents who didn't want to walk the 3.5 miles. We wore "The boys are back in town" tee shirts with "Mission Completed" on them.
The response was incredible. A solid wave of applause for an hour and a half. Older veterans saluting. Children looking in awe and accepting a flag. Friends and relatives coming on the road to hug soldiers. Chants and cheers. Offers of alcohol, refused because they were in uniform. A real movable feast. As one soldier said on the ride back "That will take a while to digest." As a family member, I was near tears several times.
Parade
I wish every soldier could have such a welcome home. Most Guard units will get parades when they return, but on a much smaller scale. Most regular Army units will get some ceremony, but it will be on a base or in a military town, not in their home town. The Navy tends to dump them off the ship as fast as possible. Of course, the Guardmen are unlikely to be redeployed again, or at least not soon, so there was some closure involved. Marines returning from a deployment have to start planning for the next one. Sailors have to start the cycle of getting the ship ready for the next cruise.
Such ceremonies are not only good for the soldiers in the short term. It helps remind them that they have tremendous support and that the support is not tied to approval ratings of politicians. No matter how people feel about Bush (and La Crosse has a Democrat congressman), they appreciate their soldiers, especially the local ones.