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Friday, February 25, 2005
Bittersweet homecomings
By AUDREY PARENTE | News-Journal Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH — In the harsh desert Iraqi battleground, Staff Sgt. Samuel Potter dodged serious injuries in an explosion. He arrived home in Daytona Beach with a Purple Heart.
His hero’s welcome was rewarding, he said, but is just a memory now that he’s back in civilian life — the plight of many American men and women returning from Iraq, according to military officials who work with returning soldiers.
“We came home to a few minutes of glory, but after that, nobody really cares,” said Potter, 38, an Army reservist who also served in the Marines for 13 years.
The Army Reserve and Army National Guard are trying to extend the glory with ceremonies honoring service men and women three months after they’ve returned home.
Soldiers on leave for only a few days or weeks, meanwhile — like Marine Patrick Hause of Ormond Beach — face a different struggle, one that also lingers for veterans such as Potter: leaving behind the heightened war zone alertness of Iraq for the slower pace of civilian life.
For Potter, the real reminders of his Iraq service are a half-inch scar across his throat — where doctors dug out shrapnel blasted into his neck from a roadside bomb — and his stitched-together earlobe, ripped apart by the explosion.
Wearing desert fatigues, Potter flew in from Iraq in early February to Fort Stewart at Hinesville, Ga.
After a few days of debriefing, he rode with three busloads of returning war heroes and a police escort to Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile, Ala., where 1,000 family members and friends of the soldiers were waiting.
The scenario is being repeated across the country as hundreds of reservists and regular soldiers rotate out of active duty or head home on leave — from a land Potter said is filled with “fist-sized camel spiders and deadly black scorpions.”
The celebrity status doesn’t last long, Potter said. A televised sports broadcast left him with the feeling soldiers are under-appreciated.
“I was watching the game where the Indiana Pacers were fighting with the Detroit Piston fans, while we were all there fighting in Iraq and hardly getting any recognition,” Potter said.
He is proud of the job he did and happy to be alive, because, to date, nearly 1,500 of his fellow soldiers have died. He said among the more than 10,000 wounded so far, his injuries weren’t considered severe. But he does believe Americans have a misplaced sense of who should get attention.
A spokesman for the 81st Regional Readiness Command in Birmingham, Ala., said the military is trying to remedy that with a new program to be implemented soon, called “Welcome Home Citizen Warrior.”
The plan is to recognize deployed soldiers for acts of heroism, said Maj. William D. Ritter, public affairs officer for an eight-state region, including Florida. The awards will be presented 90 days after a reservist’s return, at a regional recognition ceremony attended by family members, community officials and legislators.
The National Guard’s similar program, called “Freedom Salute,” already has staged ceremonies in different parts of the country.
Kathy Mode, who is in charge of three Daytona Beach Army Reserve units based in Daytona Beach, hadn’t heard of the Welcome Home program, but said it would be great for returning soldiers who experience roller-coaster emotions.
“The whole year was terrifying — going on missions every day,” said Potter. “I was angry, but didn’t know who to be angry at — the military or the insurgents.”
A Pensacola native, he served on active duty in the Marines for 13 years after high school until 1998, and in 2000 joined the Army Reserves, “to finish out my 20,” he said.
He worked at a juvenile detention center and was attached to a Daytona Beach Army Reserve unit. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, his unit was deployed to Fort Bragg for six months.
Then, in November 2003, he was mobilized with the 498th Transportation unit out of Fort Stewart as a truck driver “to replace the guys from the first wave in Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
A roadside bomb injured him in August 2004.
“I remember coming to and trying to stop the truck. I knew I was bleeding, but I was kind of numb,” he said. “I started to feel it then. I had to go into surgery. I didn’t stay in but one day and they sent me back.”
Coping with leftover emotions is a challenge, he said.
“I still react to loud noises and check my surroundings, but I try to control it and not make a big scene about it. I don’t want to have to go through counseling or anything like that,” Potter said.
Despite all that has happened, he is applying for full-time military status.
On Feb. 10, full-time Marine Lance Cpl. Patrick Hause, 19, of Ormond Beach arrived home for a 10-day leave after serving nearly a year in Iraq.
He was met at Daytona Beach International Airport by a half dozen family members, including his grandmother, Florence Rose, who had been delaying her Christmas celebration until his arrival.
Hause said he was “relieved” to see his family, but he, too, was coping with remnants of his wartime experiences.
As a gunner, Hause said the top half of his body stuck out of a military vehicle as he patrolled Iraq’s dusty roads.
“I was in a combat unit. We had a tent with 15 laptops and five phones, and there was a three-hour wait for the phone for 1,100 people,” Hause said. “I was shot at lots. At the time, you are concentrating on making sure that you are doing what you are trained to do. I was proud to serve with the Marines around me, and I am glad most of us made it home alive.”
During his trip home he stiff-armed someone walking too close behind him in the airport.
“It was in San Diego. The guy was walking close behind me. I pushed him. He was shocked,” Hause said. He has returned to Camp Pendleton for reassignment after his leave.