State's Red Bull soldiers begin arriving from Iraq

CAMP DOUGLAS, WIS. -- Minnesota National Guard soldiers Christina Brinig and Cara Blazei marched off a chartered DC-10 Tuesday, turned in their M-16 rifles and started rolling around in a grassy patch next to the Volk Field airstrip in central Wisconsin.

"I won't miss Iraq, but I'll miss these people," said Blazei, 21, a maintenance specialist from Minneapolis. "Everyone here is like family."

After 22 months, including 16 months in Iraq, Brinig, Blazei and about 200 other National Guard troops were back on Midwestern soil as the first major wave of 2,600 Red Bull Brigade soldiers from Minnesota began returning home.

Two more jets filled with soldiers touched down Tuesday night at the Wisconsin military base 180 miles east of the Twin Cities.

The troops will spend about a week at nearby Fort McCoy, undergoing medical exams, psychological counseling and other military processing before reuniting with their families.

It's part of an intensified effort called "Beyond the Yellow Ribbon," which includes steps to smooth the troops' reintegration to civilian life.

In Minnesota, there have been three high-profile deaths involving troops returning from Iraq, the most recent on June 30 when Staff Sgt. Adam Sheda of Cloquet was shot to death during an altercation at a party in Duluth.

Handling combat stress will be the subject of classes this week, as well as 30, 60 and 90 days down the road. Soldiers will receive wallet cards with mental health tips and other suggestions.

"My only advice is to go slow," Maj. Gen. Rick Erlandson told troops at the Volk Field hangar. "You have changed and your families have changed in the last 22 months while you were going at a tremendous operational tempo.

"Get help, slow down and make that effort."

No reunions -- yet

For the next week at Fort McCoy, the returning troops won't be allowed to leave the base, see family members, drink alcohol of wear civilian clothes.

Instead, they'll attend classes that explore how to slow down after nearly two years at an adrenaline-jacked pace and learn other ins and outs of readjusting to civilian life.

They'll also handle the more mundane paperwork issues related to benefits and military records.

"A week's a week -- compared to everything we've been through, it's nothing," said Anthony Ghylin, 21, of Blaine, who trimmed trees in Plymouth before being deployed.

"It feels good to be back on green grass instead of sand and rock," said Robert Lewis, 37, of Fridley, who called his wife and three kids when the plane refueled in Maine.

"There was a sense of happiness on the phone line knowing I'm OK, but it's tough for them knowing I'm here but still next door for another week."

Extension 'devastating'

Original plans called for Minnesota troops to train for six months and spend a year in Iraq. This week's homecoming had been slated for March. But when President Bush called for a troop surge in January, the Minnesota soldiers had 120 days tacked onto their tours.

"It was devastating and horrible finding out we were being extended," said Staff Sgt. Jacie Swanson of Shoreview. "It was like training for an 8-mile race and being told halfway through it was a 15-mile run. We were out of gas and burned out and needed to find an inner energy."

Swanson, 29, married Ryan Thiesse two weeks before being deployed in September 2005. "Seven days, after nearly two years, is really nothing but another steppingstone," she said.

Melissa Meger, 26, of Mankato used the extra time in Iraq to earn her bachelor's degree in nursing, picking up credits by working in a trauma center. Now all she needs to do is take her board exams to get her nursing license.

'We stuck together'

"It was one of the most difficult things any soldier has to go through," she said. "But we stuck together to get through the situation."

Swanson's brother, Sgt. Tron Swanson, 25, walked off the plane with a 3-foot-tall volleyball trophy his team, the Spotted Cows, won in his base's six-on-six league.

Having his big sister "two cans down" in the trailer-sized base housing was the source of constant teasing.

"It had its ups and downs, but for the most part it was good to have family around," he said.

Going to the cabin comes soon

As two siblings in a family of 12 kids from Sauk Rapids, the Swansons are looking forward to a rented cabin near Gull Lake next week where their other siblings, their parents and friends can visit and relax.

"I can't even express how excited I am to get in a boat, jump right in a lake and hang out with my family at the cabin," Jacie Swanson said, exhaling deeply. "It was the best feeling ever to walk off that plane and smell the grass and trees.

"You become immune to things you take for granted because you smell them every day. It's just nice to see cars instead of Humvees and houses instead of mud huts."

The American public's increasing opposition to the war, Bush's flagging popularity and upcoming U.S. Senate votes on troop withdrawals haven't escaped the soldiers.

But neither have the words of an Iraqi interpreter named Abdul, who grabbed Swanson's arm on her last mission setting up a first-aid station with the Iraqi army.

"He said, 'Swanny, when you're old and in a rocking chair, I don't want you to tell your grandchildren you didn't make a difference here, because you have,' " she recalled "It gave me the chills.

"You get a sour taste in your mouth reading about all the soldiers dying. But to hear from an Iraqi's mouth that we are making a difference, that meant a lot to me."

Curt Brown • 612-673-4767 • curt.brown@startribune.com