Oregon Public Broadcasting

Members of a Fort Lewis Stryker Brigade are returning home after 15-months in Iraq. A welcome home ceremony was held Thursday for the first group of soldiers to return. Correspondent Austin Jenkins was there.

The family of Sgt. Aaron Wilcox awaits his arrival home from Iraq.

An Army band played and families cheered as members of the 4-2 Stryker Brigade filed into a gym on the Fort Lewis Army Base. The approximately 250 soldiers – dressed in Army fatigues – lined up in formation for their formal welcome home.

Among those sitting in the gym bleachers, Loraine Wilcox and her three children.

Loraine Wilcox: “It’s our second deployment to Iraq.”

Wilcox’s two daughters are 5 and 2 and both have serious disabilities.

Loraine Wilcox: “The oldest one she’s got severe epilepsy, cerebral palsy and development delays. The baby has severe developmental delays and cerebral palsy.”

Hard enough to have your husband deployed – doubly difficult when you have special needs children.

Loraine Wilcox: “I’m ready for it to be over. I’m actually pretty stressed out right now.”

After a brief ceremony, the soldiers and their families reunited in a chaotic scene on the gym floor.

Sgt. Aaron Wilcox greeted his family quietly. I asked him if he worried about his wife having to care for the girls alone.

Aaron Wilcox: “I was concerned a lot, but I knew my wife was able to handle what was going on.”

Of course the family members left behind had a lot of worry too. Thirty nine soldiers from this brigade were killed during the deployment.

Over the next three weeks, the rest of the roughly 4000 soldiers will return home. This will be the first time all three Fort Lewis-based Stryker Brigades will be stateside since the war started.