Soldiers welcomed home after year in Afghanistan

DALTON, Ga. -- Amanda Henslee jittered nervously in cowboy boots and a skirt as she juggled a ringing cell phone and a homemade sign.

"I've been dreaming of this moment for 323 days!! So happy to be back in your arms," the sign read.

Since August, she'd seen her husband, Spc. Nathan Henslee, for just one day, a quick visit during nine days that members of Charlie Troop spent at Fort Stewart, Ga., after arriving back in the United States.

"The first time I saw him, it was crazy. I couldn't stop shaking when I was getting ready. I could barely do my makeup because my hands were shaking so much," she said Tuesday while standing in the Kmart parking lot, her eyes darting toward the road, looking for the school buses carrying Charlie Troop back home.

Across town, more than 1,000 supporters awaited the Dalton-based troop's arrival on Harmon Field, where Dalton High School plays football on fall Friday nights.

Charlie Troop members got off the school buses at Kmart, immediately boarded other buses and continued on to the stadium where, like fans watching their team, people raised homemade signs, cell phones and cameras and chanted "Charlie, Charlie, Charlie" as the soldiers marched onto the dry grass.

Charlie Troop is part of the 1st Squadron 108th Cavalry attached to the 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The headquarters troop, based in Calhoun, Ga., returned one hour earlier Tuesday than the main body of the unit and paraded through town before a ceremony at the local National Guard Armory.

On Tuesday, Laurel Wilson saw her husband, Staff Sgt. Jim Wilson, for the first time since he returned to the United States. He jumped off the truck at the armory, scooped up his daughter Jessie, then hugged his wife.

"It was a mixture of excitement and nerves," Mrs. Wilson said in a telephone interview after her husband's arrival.

The unit deployed a year ago to provinces near Kabul, Afghanistan, to train and support Afghan police and soldiers.

"If we got intel that there was somebody inside a house or inside a building, we went and got the Afghan police and we let them go in and get the people," said Sgt. Christopher Hall, a Dalton resident who worked with an 18-man team in the Konar province near the Pakistan border.

The work put Afghans in the forefront of operations with Charlie Troop supporting and advising, soldiers said.

Over the course of the year, American and Afghan teams grew closer, soldiers said, working on operations that included eradicating poppies to reduce heroin production, tracking down insurgent mortar teams that attacked nearby villages or helping with local governmental concerns.

That work, though helpful, turned deadly at times.

"Unfortunately, one of the guys we really trusted that worked with us, they booby-trapped his walkway to his house and they blew him up," Sgt. Hall said.

Violence during the deployment wasn't limited to Afghans.

On May 17, 2009, Sgt. 1st Class Boyles, Spc. Andrew Sullens , Spc. Shane Richardson and Spc. Anthony Landowski, who is from Ringgold, Ga., were on combat patrol when an improvised explosive device blew the doors off their vehicle and sent all but Spc. Richardson, the driver, home for surgery and recuperation.

Spc. Richardson returned Tuesday with the rest of the unit.

No member of Charlie Troop died during the tour, but at least five soldiers with the 48th died during the deployment, including local soldiers 1st Sgt. John Blair of Calhoun, Ga., and Sgt. Raymundo "Ray" Morales of Dawnville, Ga.

The troop's commander, Capt. Jason Lewis, said casualties hit soldiers during their mission, but "what the soldiers do is they bond together ... we can't just not do the job anymore because we lose soldiers, and that makes us work 10 times harder."

48TH INFANTRY BRIGADE COMBAT TEAM* 3,200 soldiers deployed last spring to Afghanistan to support and train Afghan police and soldiers near Kabul, Afghanistan.* At least five soldiers with the 48th died during the deployment, including local soldiers 1st Sgt. John Blair of Calhoun, Ga., and Sgt. Raymundo "Ray" Morales of Dawnville, Ga.* On May 17, 2009, Sgt. 1st Class Boyles, Spc. Andrew Sullens and Spc. Anthony Landowski, who is from Ringgold, Ga., were on combat patrol when an improvised explosive device blew the doors off their vehicle and sent them home for surgery and recuperation. They all are members of the Dalton, Ga.-based C Troop 1st Squadron, 108th Cavalry.Source: Times Free Press archives

After the music, after the marching, when camouflage uniforms walked with family members out of the stadium, Spc. Henslee circled his arm around his wife and squeezed her shoulder with his hand.

Married for one year before a year apart, the Ringgold couple said they have some time to reclaim.

"It was a really difficult experience, but it's something I'm glad we went through as a couple and I think we've really grown a lot from it," Mrs. Henslee said.

"We were screaming and I was trying to figure out which one he was. They all wear the same thing," -- Laurel Wilson, wife of Staff Sgt. Jim Wilson

"I trusted (Afghan police, soldiers) with my life, working side by side with them daily. That's hard to say about some of the guys over there." -- Sgt. Christopher Hall

"I can tell you that our unit is very young. These guys were put in positions where they had to do jobs that were two and three ranks above their jobs. ... There was nobody better for the job." -- Capt. Jason Lewis

"Just with the little time we were there, you could tell the things they learned from us." -- Spc. Nathan Henslee

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