Repeat war tours take toll on home front

[unhappycamper]

Shanan Conklin is comforted by her mother, Nanette Reclosado, as her husband, Staff Sgt. Pete Conklin, plays with their 16-month-old daughter, Sasha, before leaving for an Iraq deployment August 30 at Ft. Drum in New York. Conklin is assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division


Repeat war tours take toll on home front
By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Sep 23, 2007 9:49:28 EDT

FORT DRUM, N.Y. — Shanan Conklin couldn’t fight back her tears as she watched her husband, dressed in his Army uniform, play with their 16-month-old daughter.

A few short hours later, he would be on a plane, headed for 15 months in Iraq.

Two Christmases and more than 450 days of separation.

“My whole heart is right there,” Shanan Conklin said. “I tried making sure the bills were taken care of, making sure we took enough pictures, making sure we took enough walks, making sure we spent enough time together. As much as you do, I don’t think you’re ever prepared for it. I’m not ready. I’m not ready at all.”

Staff Sgt. Pete Conklin, of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, and his fellow soldiers from 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division are on their way to Kirkuk, Iraq. This is the brigade’s first Iraq deployment, but it comes on the heels of two tours in Afghanistan.

“There’s so much you want to say, so much you want to do, that you think of a thousand things you want to say or do,” Shanan Conklin said. “It’s just been one nightmare after another, every night that he’s not coming home.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/09/army_brigade_deployments_070923/

[babylonsister]

1. This is so, so sad, what we're doing to our soldiers and their families.

:(