Published: October 30, 2006 12:23 am            

Reserves earn Welcome Home Warrior award

Transcript Staff Writer

Sgt. 1st Class Michael Denette, of Oklahoma City, spent a year deployed to Afghanistan where he traveled to train Afghan troops in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Coupled with training, Denette spent 15 months away from his wife and family during the deployment, he said.

Spending most of his time living in a mud hut and a partially bombed-out building, it wasn't easy for him to be away from his wife, Gina, and his three children, Joseph, 17, Andrew, 14, and Isabella, 3.

"My youngest wasn't even two when I left," Denette said, as he looked at his lively 3-year-old daughter as she skipped around the reception room at the Joe A. Smalley Reserve Center in Norman. "Things change a lot when you're gone for so long."

It was sometimes hard for Gina Denette to watch television while her husband was deployed, she said.

"We would stay away from the news for long periods of time," she said. "The news tends to sensationalize things and it was very scary at times."

Denette was one of six members of the 3rd Battalion/ 378th Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 95th division of the Army Reserves to receive the Welcome Home Warrior Citizen Award for heroism in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Norman Sunday.

Signed into law by President Bush December 2004, the award program seeks to recognized Reserve troops for their combat and non-combat service.

The soldiers received a an encased American flag, a specially designed commemorative coin, a set of lapel pins, and a "Welcome Home Warrior Citizen Flag."

"Spend time with your families over the holidays," Col. Ken Jones said, addressing the troops after the ceremony. "When you've been away from your family, you know how special that time is."

The recognition of Reserve soldiers is essential in a time when many Army reserve soldiers are being deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, and to active-duty military bases around the country to support the global war on terrorism, said Sgt. Angela Navarro, of Oklahoma City. Navarro was deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan to work in personnel from July 2005 to May 2006.

"I've been in the reserves for 10 years, and this is the first time I've ever been deployed overseas," she said.

Similarly, Denette, an Army Reservist for 17 years, had never been deployed overseas prior to his stint in Afghanistan.

Navarro said she was lucky because she worked in an office environment in Kabul, and got to call her husband and four children, ages 3, 6, 11, and 16 every day during her deployment.

"But that's rare," she said. "Most people only get 15 minutes on the phone every so often. I was very lucky."

Since the war in Iraq began in 2003, as much as 40 percent of American troops there have consisted of National Guard and Reserve soldiers, according to the Center for Defense Information. As of August, nearly 90,000 National Guard and Reserve troops have been mobilized, according to CDI.

There are currently 19 troops Army Reserve troops deployed from his battalion based in Norman, Lt. Col. Douglas Long, said.

"But that's our mission, to support the Army," he said. "We can take it."

Other soldiers recognized in the Welcome Home Warrior Citizen ceremony include 1st Lt. Charles Graff, mobilized to Ft. Sill May 2005 to July 2006, Master Sgt. Garcia Roberto, deployed to Iraq July 2005 to Nov. 2005, Sgt. 1st Class Oddie Bunch, mobilized to Ft. Sill Feb. 2003 to Nov. 2003, and Staff Sgt. Lorence Ford, deployed to Iraq Sept. 2005 to Dec. 2005.

        

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