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Ky. National Guard back home
The Kentucky National Guard hosts a welcome home ceremony for more than 400 troops from the 201st Engineer Battalion on Thursday, March 5, 2009, at Boyd County Middle School.
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ASHLAND, Ky. -- The $1,500 phone bills at Dawn Easterling's home will be over now that her husband is home from Afghanistan.
Easterling, a dispatcher for the Lawrence County Ohio Sheriff's Department, talked with her husband, Todd, a sheriff's deputy every day, sometimes two or three times. Todd and 420 other members of the 201st Engineer Battalion of the Kentucky National Guard returned home Thursday night from a year-long deployment in Afghanistan.
They were met by hundreds of family members and friends along with Gov. Steve Beshear at Boyd County Middle School Thursday evening.
"It's been a long year," Dawn Easterling said. "I'm so glad it's over. He called me every day. We also had instant messaging and e-mail. The phone calls cost $4 a minute. He was in Iraq in 2004 on his last tour."
She would tense up every time a soldier would come into the sheriff's department until the military personnel would ask about a recruit, not to tell her about a soldier who had paid the ultimate price.
Two members of the unit did. Sgt. Daniel Wallace was killed on Oct. 31. Sgt. Jonnie Stiles with the 927th Sapper unit from Baton Rouge, serving with the 201st, was killed Nov. 13.
Called the "Workhouse Battalion," the 201st would clear the road of mines and IEDs. The battalion earned 110 bronze stars, 54 purple hearts and three silver stars during its 1,131 missions they were engaged in. The 201st has units in Ashland, Olive Hill, and Cynthiana. Charlie Company of the 206th in Prestonsburg also deployed with the 201st as did the 927th from Baton Rouge, La.
Lt. Col. Michael S. "Tater" Ferguson, called the returning soldiers "true heroes. For the past 10 months, we were the tip of the spear. Nothing moved until we cleared the way."
Susan Dye said her husband, Sgt. Henry Dye of Paintsville, got to come home for two weeks at Christmas. "It's been a hard year," she said. It's been stressful. There were times I could tell his spirits were down. They did come under fire a few times."
Melanie Kersey of Worthington, Ky., said her son, Zachery Kersey plans to go back to Ashland Community and Technical College to get a degree in computer science now that he's home safe.
"He's excited to get back to his schooling," she said. "He wants normalcy."
"I'm looking forward to spending time with my family," said Sgt. Kevin Walker of Carlisle, Ky. "It's good to be home. I am in no hurry to get back to work. I have a lot of time to make up for."
His wife, Melinda Walker, said the year her husband was away at war was "overwhelming at times," but Thursday was a good day. "We waited a year for this day to come."
Yvonne Draper and more than a dozen other family members and friends rented a HUMMER limousine to bring Chaplin Bill Draper of Frankfort, KY, home in style Thursday. "This was his second deployment," she said. "It was a little easier this time because I knew what to expect and it was for 12 months this time instead of 18."
Meanwhile, the last piece of paper on Rebecca Vansickle's paper chain was torn off Thursday in South Shore, KY. Her young children kept asking when their daddy was coming home. "It's hard to explain time to a young child, so I made a paper chain and every day we tore off a piece. Today we tore off the last one. Emily got me up at 6:30 a.m."
