February 3, 2014 by Stephanie

Armucation: Homecoming Ceremonies

I was one of those people who thought that as soon as the soldier got off whatever vehicle transport they came in on, they would be free to go home.

This is a huge misconception. There is a lot more that goes into a homecoming than the banners and hugs.

These are just my observations of the Army and how Ft. Campbell does homecoming. Every branch and post may do their own variation of things.

Bangor, Maine is the first stop in the US for many of our troops. There are a band of greeters who meet the soldiers as they touch US soil for the first time in months. These greeters come to the airport at all hours of the night to welcome home our troops. Tom said this was one of the greatest parts of coming home. It is very touching to watch videos from here.

Bangor Homecoming Greeters

They can come at all hours of the day. I joked that going to a homecoming ceremony during the day is a myth. I have only been to them in the dead of night. The schedules are also unpredictable. When Tom came home, I feel like they changed the time they were supposed to arrive about every hour that week that they were scheduled home. So there is a lot of waiting.

Glinn Photography

Once the troops get home they have to line up for a short ceremony.

Glinn Photography

From here, they are released for about 20 minutes to meet with their family.

Glinn Photography

These are the moments that are inspiring and the ones to live for.

Glinn Photography

After this very little time with family and friends, the soldiers line back up to go back to their company areas. The families go to a waiting room or classroom in the company area to wait for an hour or more. During this time you are not allowed to see your soldier. The soldiers are turning in all of their sensitive items, getting housing assignments, and other various administrative tasks. For me this was the longest couple of hours because I knew Tom was right outside but I couldn’t see him.

After they are finally released after what seems like days, then kind of everything is up for grabs.

The soldiers are not allowed to drive for 24 hours that first day, and many of them don’t have cars anyway because they sold them before the deployment. So they have to make plans for that.

The units will have a reintegration class they have to attend every day for the next week. It is a way for them to have some stability and routine when their whole world just changed.

Then there are the personal things that you have to get use to again which can take time depending on the soldier and family they are coming home to.

So there is much more than what you see on TV for homecomings, and it ends up being a long process of reintegrating back into the country. It is a very interesting and wonderful experience, but it was frustrating at first that I couldn’t just keep my soldier to myself.

I would encourage people to go to a homecoming ceremony once in their lifetime. It is very awesome to witness!

Have you been to a homecoming ceremony for any branch? What things did you notice from the experience that I did not mention here?

As a side note, Tom and I are being featured on “Date Night Is” for our date nights. Pretty sweet!

January 27, 2014 by Stephanie

Talks with Tom #17

This weekend was a whirlwind.

Tom’s bestie returned from his 9 month “business trip” to Afghanistan in the wee hours of Sunday morning. It was so touching to be part of that moment when Martin saw his family again. I felt extremely privileged to capture those moments for them.

And of course to see the relationship between him and Tom be rekindled was heartwarming!

I love Martin’s family’s faces in the background.

Martin and Tom went to basic together. They were part of a small handful of that graduating group who moved here to Ft. Campbell. So naturally they stuck together despite being put in different brigades.

They are brothers from other mothers. It is ridiculous how much alike they are.

I am super pumped about Martin being back because while I love my husband and wish I could provide the world to him, I know that I cannot be everything to him. We all need a bestie. I have come to terms with the fact that there is going to be less time for Tom and I, or that some nights we will have another roommate. I know Martin being home is going to up our quality of life exponentially! (And I hope that his lady and newest baby will be coming to visit more often because quite frankly I love them too!)

They picked up like they have never been apart! Love it!

Since the unit came in around 3am, it meant that none of us got sleep since you have to be there for hours before the plane lands. You also have to wait for hours afterward while they turn in sensitive items. So to let his family go back to their hotel to get some down time while we waited for Martin to be freed, Tom volunteered to wait the extra couple hours in the parking lot.

Which meant, Tom slept in the parking lot for a couple hours.

Tom- “I was sleeping in the Jeep waiting on Martin.”

Tom- “When I woke up, I thought what was that smell?”

Tom- “OH MY! Is that my mouth?!?! It tasted like I smoked a dog turd.”

Tom- “So I used Wrigley Spearmint to hide my shame.”

Me- “So you can be fresh for when you reunite with your bromance?”

Tom-“Yea. You don’t want your first post deployment kiss to taste like dog shit.”

(sorry about the language)

They are two of a kind. This was one of my favorite shots.

This is just a preview of the ceremony pictures. I have tons more to share next week after editing (and some catch up on sleeping-this girl doesn’t do all-nighters very well friends.) I am going to include them in a post about fun facts about home coming ceremonies. I hope you come back to read all about it!

So even though it was a rough weekend on my body, it was a great weekend mentally!

It was a true testament of the friends turned family that you can make while in the Army.

December 10, 2013 by Stephanie

Armucation: Airborne vs. Air Assault

Since I got a pretty good response on the last couple posts about my little Army knowledge, I figured I would semi-regularly write about details and tidbits about the Army. It is really educational for me too, so I hope you enjoy learning a little bit more about the Army.

There are a lot of qualifiers, training, and titles that go along with the Army. It can get confusing real quick!

Two of them are Airborne and Air Assault. These are known as qualifiers.

Fort Campbell is home of the 101st Airborne, which is one of the most famous units, most recognizably for Band of Brothers.

So most people have heard of Airborne before. If you were like me though, you may have never heard of Air Assault. One would think that it has to do with fighting in the air from plane to plane-assault in the air duh!

So here is your Armucation for the day.

Air Assault and Airborne are fairly similar. They both refer to the mode of transportation that a unit specializes in getting to their mission. And both have to do with vehicles that fly.

Airborne is when a unit jumps out of an airplane with parachutes. There is a school that you must go to at Ft. Benning, GA, to become qualified. It generally lasts for about 3 weeks. I am sure it involves some jumping in the air and what not.

Air Assault is when a unit deploys out of a helicopter. This also includes sling loads, which is basically a rope that is hooked underneath the helicopter. When Tom was deployed, this is how a lot of food, mail, supplies were delivered. The school is here at Ft. Campbell and lasts for 11 days.

both pictures via

Fast Facts:

These are an individual qualifier not an automatic right since you in stationed within the unit.
A soldier can be qualified for both, and it is not just restricted to the infantry.
From WWII there has always been an airborne unit.
The 101st Screaming Eagles is the only air assault unit in the world, but this doesn’t mean that other units aren’t air assault qualified.
There are a few Airborne units.
Everyone in the Army (or even infantry) is not qualified for either. From what I can tell, a lot of it may be due to your MOS and duty assignment and what options may be available there.
You can have gone on deployments before being “trained” for these. Tom went through the Air Assault school a month after he returned form his deployment.

There are two other “types” of transportation besides these Air Assault and Airborne.

“Light” is foot infantry meaning they come in by foot. They may use other vehicles, but they are made to do foot traffic.

“Mec” is mechanized infantry. This is when they roll in vehicles like strykers (kind of like a tank).

The mode of transportation will be picked depending on the mission and terrain they are going into. It is all situational, and the same area may call for all four depending on what is occurring at the time.

This is part of the Air Assault training. They have to rappel off the side you see but also off the other side where there is no wall. This thing is huge and kind of daunting, but I kind of want to do the jump…
Picture from http://www.campbell.army.mil/units/Sabalauski/Pages/AirAssaultSchool.aspx

It seems like I learn things about the Army every day. If there are things that you have questions about or you would love to see a post about, just let me know! I am by no means an expert at all things Army, but I love exploring new topics and sharing what I see as a military spouse.

I am starting a list of topics, so any ideas are welcome!

Hope you enjoyed today’s Armucation.