This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
For many, it was hard to believe this week would ever come.
The soldiers of the Utah-based 116th Convoy Security Company received a violent, bitter welcome to Iraq. Within weeks of their arrival, dozens had been the victims of roadside bomb attacks. Several were the new owners of a Purple Heart medal - worn by those who are injured in combat - including at least one who required stateside treatment for his wounds. And they had all bore witness to the most solemn consequence of war: A member of the Kansas-based unit they were relieving was killed in the final days of his deployment.
The majority of the 200-soldier unit is scheduled to return stateside today, with touchdown in Utah set for later this week. As family members gathered Saturday to make preparations for that homecoming, many spoke of the first weeks of the deployment as a trying time.
“It was very hard for me,” remembered Desiree Howard. Her husband had tried to keep secret the bomb attack that left him with a concussion. Howard learned by accident, stumbling upon a letter from her father-in-law while trying to find billing information for the family's truck in her husband's e-mail inbox. “After that, after I found out the hard way, I told my husband, 'If something happens, I want to be the first to know,' ” she said.
That too was the arrangement Whitney Rinck had with her husband from the beginning of the deployment. But after Zachary Rinck's convoy was hit with a roadside bomb blast on his third mission in Iraq, she asked for an adjustment to their understanding. “I told him, 'You know, you don't have to tell me everything,'" she said.
Rinck spoke to her husband every few days. The times between, she said, were almost intolerably worrisome. “I was scared,” she said. “He got hit on his third mission. I wondered, 'What's going to happen next?' 'Is something else going to go wrong?'”
About a third of the company's soldiers had firsthand experience with roadside bombs, but further significant injuries were few. Violence fell in much of Iraq. And while Mosul, where the 116th was stationed, remained a stronghold of Sunni insurgents, the frequency of attacks waned there, too.
But until the very end, Christine Peterson said she remained on edge. “It was tough - really tough,” she said of weathering a deployment that began so violently.
She was one of several military spouses who on Saturday credited the support of other military families with helping her get through the toughest times, with organized events, a support network and plenty of shoulders to lean on - including those of volunteers who "adopted" the 116th's soldiers and their families.
Meanwhile, for the families of a few dozen soldiers, at least for the time being, the tough isn't over. While most of the unit will return home this week, one group volunteered to stay on for up to 60 more days.
Jennie Taylor said she was supportive of her husband's decision to remain in Iraq. A leader in the family readiness group that helped many 116th family members survive the darkest times of the deployment, Taylor remained a stalwart optimist throughout.
And with two months to go, she doesn't plan on changing her temperament one bit.