Joy, tears, laughs blanket Evansville-based unit returning from Iraq

EVANSVILLE — It would have been asking the impossible for Lindsey Keene's kids to wait stoically for her to walk into an airport terminal after a year in Iraq. And they didn't.

Oblivious to the hundreds of other people who were at Evansville Regional Airport Thursday to greet returning members of the Indiana Army National Guard, Lindsey and David Keene's three children tapped anxiously on their welcome home signs. Their faces lit up when they thought the 163rd Field Artillery's nearly 100 returnees were about to walk in — and sagged when bemused passengers of an American Airlines flight from Charlotte appeared instead.

Then it happened. Sgt. Lindsey Keene, a combat medic finishing her second deployment, swept in with other soldiers. Son Gerald Oshsner, 11, clapped his hands to his ears and cried out: "Mom!" In an instant the boy and sisters Marley Ochsner, 12 and Kiera Keene, 9, swarmed Keene, pressing their heads into her chest in an embrace charged with a year's worth of longing.

Only an hour earlier, the kids spoke with evident pride — and humor — about their mom's work in the 163rd.

"She’s like a doctor for Army men," Marley announced. "She had to pull a cactus out of an Army man’s butt last time she went on deployment."

“What did you say?!” Kiera squealed.

“Mommy had to pull a cactus out of an Army man’s butt because he fell on it because he wasn’t looking where he was going," Marley said. "She tells us to always watch where we’re going."

Dozens of similar reunions played out nearby, set against a cacophony of excited chattering, cheering — and tears. In a quieter moment, medic Austin Weber kneeled and leaned in close to pet an eight-month-old dog adorned with a white kerchief reading WELCOME HOME DADDY. Weber spoke to the animal, who had been one of eight puppies born to a pregnant dog and rescued along with their mother, Meatball, by U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Meatball dug out a spot under a shipping container on the soldiers' base in search of a place to have her babies. The soldiers found her there, giving her food and water until she gave birth. When an ice storm filled the dogs' home with hail and sludge, the soldiers saved them — and, as humans and dogs are wont to do, became attached. They knew that dogs and cats in the Middle East are frequently abused. Leaving them behind wasn't an option.

With the aid of New York-based nonprofit Paws of War (pawsofwar.org), the soldiers have worked to get all the dogs back to the U.S. to be with them.

Weber's dog — "probably just an Iraqi mutt," said his grandmother, Susan Gahagan — spent five months with him in Iraq before undergoing two months of the quarantine protocols necessary to travel internationally. The timid and still thin pooch, a female, is named Azura.

Thursday marked an end for the yearlong journey for the 163rd's 1st Battalion, an Evansville-based unit that draws in some 300 soldiers from around the Hoosier State. Two other flights were due Thursday to take soldiers from other areas of the state to Indianapolis International Airport.

The unit has been away from home for a year, providing air defense capabilities in support of Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq.

After departing Iraq a couple of weeks ago, the 163rd spent time at Fort Bliss in Texas, going through what the military calls a "demobilization process" − a time-consuming exercise that helps cover administrative and medical processing.

The time passed too slowly for Karen Paulson and her husband, Hank.

Pacing around the airport Thursday while waiting for their son, fire control specialist Ben Paulson, Karen chuckled about a jaw-dropping moment that would come during a "pretend family get-together" at a pub later.

See, Ben Paulson is engaged to be married to Cassie Steckler. Karen said she and Steckler's mother cooked up a scheme to fool Steckler, a fan of grand romantic gestures, with a grand romantic gesture. They secured Ben's cooperation.

"(Steckler) thinks he’s flying in tomorrow," Karen said, a broad smile splitting her face. "She thinks we’re talking wedding planning, and he’s going to call when we all get inside the private room. She thinks it’s just a normal phone call — and he’s going to walk in and surprise her."

Karen and Hank, an Army veteran, aren't too handy with video call meeting technology. They can do phone and text messages, though. They hadn't actually laid eyes on Ben for a year before Thursday.

Nine-year-old Kiera Keene, Sgt. Lindsey Keene's daughter, was filled with similar anticipation before her mom's appearance Thursday. It was that kind of day at the airport.

"I bet all three of us are going to run to her and hug her," Kiera said.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Joy, tears, laughs blanket Evansville-based unit returning from Iraq