Event welcomes home 3rd Brigade Combat Team

FORT DRUM — During a formal ceremony Thursday morning marking the homecoming of all soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team from their yearlong deployment in eastern Afghanistan, the unit's commander thanked soldiers' families for their sacrifice and support.

"I think we earned our way back home to you," Col. David B. Haight said, speaking before hundreds of soldiers and dozens of family members gathered in the gymnasium at the Magrath Sports Complex.

The brigade includes about 3,500 soldiers. Other, smaller units came under its command during the deployment. Including those units, a total of 270 soldiers were wounded and 32 were killed in action, Col. Haight said.

The ceremony involved uncasing the brigade's colors — the unfurling of its flags that represents the unit's return to post.

The brigade brought 22 of its wounded soldiers still undergoing treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to Fort Drum for the event. For many of them, it was the first opportunity they'd had to connect with their fellow soldiers face-to-face since being injured.

Family members present were largely the relatives of the fallen. Some traveled across the country to attend the ceremony and meet the friends and battle buddies of their sons.

"It's important to show support for the ones who are still here," Paula Turner said.

She traveled from Wyoming to accompany her friends, the family of Pfc. Matthew D. Ogden, who with two other soldiers was killed in June in a roadside bomb attack in Nerkh, Afghanistan.

Family members of Pfc. Ogden had been communicating for months via Facebook with some soldiers who knew him, said Becky L. Vrak, of Dallas, a cousin. Meeting them in person provided the family some closure, she said, as her grief bubbled to the surface in a few sudden tears.

In the gym following the ceremony, small gatherings of uniformed soldiers could be seen surrounding civilians wearing badges, identifying their relationship to the brigade's deceased.

Spc. Cory D. Garrett, a fire support specialist from Dallas home for two weeks, stood against the rear wall of the gym just before the event. Readjusting to life in the north country was proving just as challenging as the transition to deployed life in Afghanistan a year ago, he said.

His first few days living alone in his new apartment felt "a little weird. ... You're never alone in Afghanistan — and you always have a weapon."

The difference could make life outside the war zone a bit frightening at first. Still, he said, he was finding pleasure in places he never expected: television commercials, for example, which don't exist on the American Forces Network for deployed service members.

"That, and being able to eat whenever you want," he said.

In the weeks following their return, soldiers of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team are taking classes on subjects ranging from drug and alcohol abuse to winter driving safety. All will be screened for mental health problems. In February, they'll get a well-deserved month off.