Former Students, Area Soldiers Return From Iraq
By Maggie Rhynes
IV Leader Staff
Thirty more members of G Battery of the 202nd Air Defense
Artillery returned home to the Marseilles Nation Guard, Friday, Jan. 21 to a
crowd of friends and family who couldn’t wait to see their soldiers. The 151-man
unit returned in two groups, with the other soldiers returning Jan. 13.
Throughout the crowd parents and grandparents, brothers,
sisters, girlfriends, wives and fiancés were waiting, just as they have been
since Oct. 1, 2003 when their men left to serve in Iraq.
Among the waiting was Rachel Dykstra of Mendota, proud fiancé
of Spc. Jared Crew, a former IVCC student. “It’s been a long year and four
months,” she said. “This is the best day of my life!”
Dykstra and Crew have been engaged for two years, much of
that time was spent communicating by military phone calls. While Dykstra said
she was able to speak with Crew almost every day, it didn’t make the worrying go
away.
“You wake up every morning worried that you won’t get a phone call that day,”
she said.
Dykstra and the rest of the anxious family members didn’t
have to wait much longer.
An announcement that the Greyhound bus carrying the soldiers
from O’Hare Airport to the Marseilles National Guard had arrived in Marseilles
sent the once quite crowd scrambling outdoors, welcome signs, balloons and
flowers in tote.
Cheers of “Here they come,” and “There they are,” erupted
from the crowd as a Marseilles fire truck appeared over a hill. An escort of
fire trucks, police cars and ambulances, all with sirens sounding, led the
Greyhound through Marseilles and down Main Street, which was decorated in red,
white and blue and lined with people waving flags and welcoming the men home.
When they arrived there were big hugs, big smiles and big
happy tears from everyone. Nathan and Tori Pond and their cousin Delaney Pond
stood shivering in the cold, but suddenly forgot about the temperature when they
saw their dad, Dustin Pond, step off the bus.
There was a cry of “Daddy,” and “Uncle Dustin,” and suddenly
one big soldier was buried in three big hugs, from three very little kids.
As the crowd moved in doors, Ryan and Rebecca Hardekopf of
Macomb lagged behind, sharing a long overdue kiss in the cold. Back in side,
Rebecca tried to wipe away the tears, “I’m just so happy.” She said.
As Dykstra welcomed Crew home he said it felt great to be
back.
“You have no idea.” Crew said. “It’s just great.”
Together again, the two can continue planning for their July
30 wedding. Both are planning to attend Illinois Valley Community College next
fall. Crew said he will begin taking general education classes and Dykstra will
join him.
“I already have a degree,” she said, “but I just want to be
with him.”
Also arriving home was past IVCC student Spc. Mike Filipiak
of La Salle.
“This is really nice,” he said. “I’m glad to be back on US
soil.”
Filipiak was welcomed home by a group of eight family members. Among them was
his mother Amy.
“I’m so happy,” she said with a smile, never taking her eyes
off her son. “Maybe I can sleep better now. I might just sleep for a whole
night.” She said, referring to the nights spent worrying.
“This is great,” her husband Jeff agreed, “What a relief.”
Filipiak attended IVCC in 2003 to study education. He only got through two weeks
of school before it was time to head to Iraq.
“I really didn’t believe it,” he said about finding out he
was headed to Iraq. “I thought it was just a rumor. I guess I just didn’t
believe it until we were in Georgia, when we started training.”
Filipiak and the rest of the unit arrived in Iraq, “On March 1, 2004, to be
exact” he said, stating it matter-of-factly as if it where his own birthday.
When he arrived in Iraq, he was shocked, “It was like the
stone age,” he said.
“It was horrible, we just had porta-potties and we showered
in tents.”
While the Marseilles unit returned home injury and casualty
free, their situation was far from safe.
“You could be attacked everyday,” Filipiak said, describing
bombs blowing up on the side of the road, engines getting blown out of trucks
and mortar attacks on their camp.
“We were just lucky enough not to be injured.” He said.
With the threat of bombs and grenades constantly overhead,
Filipiak found inspiration in the children or Iraq.
“They live in mud houses,” he recalled, “and they would run
out to the road, coming running up to us and they would have the biggest smiles
on their face.” Their smiles were rewarded with candy from the American
soldiers.
“They give you perspective, a reason for being there. Without
them I don’t know how we would get through it.” Filipiak said.
Now that he’s home Filipiak said, “I just want to hang out
and relax.” He will attend Illinois State University in the fall to study
education.
For those left back home to worry about their loved ones in
Iraq, it wasn’t an easy wait. IVCC Math Lab instructor Cheryl Hobneck of Tonica
knows this for sure.
Hobneck said she wasn’t surprised when her son Robert, a
former IVCC student, joined the National Guard in 1999. After all, his father
had worked for the guard for 20 years. What she wasn’t expecting was for him to
leave the country.
“You have your kids join the National Guard so they stay home
to deal with floods and national emergencies,” she said. “So you don’t have to
worry about them leaving the country.” But that’s exactly what she had to worry
about.
Hbneck avoided the news media as much as possible, fearing what she might see
and not wanting to add to her already constant worrying. Her husband, Bob, was
the opposite.
“He watched it all the time,” she said. “He had a hard time
sleeping because he just knew too much.”
A two-week visit from her son in October, gave Hobneck a
piece of mind.
“Originally, they said it would be a lottery, a drawing for
the slots to come home. Thankfully they were all able to.” Hobneck explained.
Hobneck relied on her twice-weekly phone calls from her son
to get her through the year and she says looking back, it seems like he just
left.
Robert returned on Jan. 13 and was greeted in Marseilles by
his very relieved mother.