Baumholder-based unit on a mission to stay connected

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Pfc. T Jay McCollum holds 11-month-old daughter, Amelia. McCollum is hoping home videos of the two playing together will help her remember him while he is deployed in Iraq.


Baumholder-based unit on a mission to stay connected
By John Vandiver, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, April 9, 2008

BAUMHOLDER, Germany — Inside the barracks, the families huddled together in quiet conversation as their last minutes together ticked away.

Young fathers held their babies, knowing that when they return more than a year later, the infants and toddlers will be transformed. Meanwhile, some of the young spouses braced for the challenge of being a single parent during the lonely 15-month deployment stretch.

“It’ll be OK. We’ve done as much as we can to prepare,” said Tannisha McCollum, who will care for 11-month-old daughter Amelia alone while her 21-year-old husband, Pfc. T Jay McCollum, deploys with the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division.

For families of the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment’s Company A, Monday evening was the final farewell. Soldiers, spouses and children gathered at the unit’s barracks for pizza and tried to relax as the time to part approached.

By 11, it was time to say goodbye as the unit locked down and soldiers made their final deployment preparations, received smallpox vaccinations and waited for the call to board buses for Ramstein Air Base.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53928