Guardsmen saluted for Iraq service - At Allentown Armory, soldiers describe the reunions, lasting effects

A man with a buzz cut and desert combat fatigues stood in the back of the gymnasium, cradling a baby sleeping soundly in his arms. A woman, also in fatigues, sat attentively, despite the wriggling 4-year-old girl on her lap.

Such was the scene -- equally martial and familial -- at a Sunday morning ceremony at the Allentown Armory honoring three dozen Pennsylvania Army National Guard soldiers who returned from Iraq this summer.

The citizen soldiers were part of a medical group based in Allentown. Company C, 228th Brigade Support Battalion mobilized for six months of training at Camp Shelby, Miss., and then served one year in Iraq before returning in June.

"We were in a pretty hot area," Sgt. Sean Hayes, 26, of East Stroudsburg said. Asked about coming home, he said, "Well, um, there are readjustment issues. I think everyone has them." Loud noises, for example, spook him.

Company C provided care to troops of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division in Iraq's al-Anbar province -- a center of insurgent activity.

Fifteen soldiers from the combat team died during the deployment.

The company included doctors, nurses and paramedics, as well as other medical specialists. Some occasionally accompanied combat troops on patrols.

"Your sacrifice in service to this country is extraordinary," said U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, R-15th District, one the speakers Sunday. He was addressing not only the soldiers, but their spouses, children and parents, whom the event also honored.

Maranda Fredrich's husband was away for all but the first two months of her pregnancy, and then for another 101/2 months after the birth of their daughter.

"When he left, we were a couple," Fredrich, of Allentown, said of her husband, Staff Sgt. Kurt Fredrich. "When he came home, we were a family."

She said their re-adjustment has gone smoothly because she kept in touch with her husband by e-mail and video, and because she spoke to her daughter about her father every day.

By the time he came home, she said, "Daddy was a name she already knew."

Spc. Amy Torres, 25, of Tower City, Schuylkill County, left her son and daughter, now ages 6 and 4, with her mother while she was in Iraq.

"She was a baby, and now she's a little person," she said. "And he's a little man now."

During the ceremony, attended by about 100 people, the soldiers received commemorative flags and certificates. Their spouses got pins, and their children got gift boxes.

Certain soldiers were also recognized for special contributions.

Spc. Megan McLain, 23, of Gouldsboro, Wayne County, received a citation for giving medical care to two military dogs that were wounded in a suicide bomb attack.

During her deployment, she said, she treated "a lot more humans than dogs."