After year in Afghanistan, platoon savors home

[unhappycamper]

Staff Sgt. Cody Collins of the 2nd Platoon, Apache Company, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, part of the 3rd Combat Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, finds a trigger wire for a roadside bomb during an Aug. 16, 2009 patrol in the Tangi Valley in Afghanistan's Wardak province.



After year in Afghanistan, platoon savors home
By David Goldman - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Jan 9, 2010 12:43:22 EST

WATERTOWN, N.Y. — Just hours after they arrived home from a year-long deployment in Afghanistan the clock struck midnight, and soldiers of 2nd Platoon, Apache Company of the 2nd Battalion 87th Infantry Regiment, gathering at their local bar, Fat Boys, hugged each other, shouting “Happy New Year” and “I love you.”

Amidst the celebration stood Olivia Nammack, 26, and her husband Spc. Don Johnson, 28, locked in a kiss and a long embrace.

Nammack felt “relaxed for the first time in 12 months and just so happy,” she said later.

The 2/87, part of the 3rd Combat Brigade 10th Mountain Division, based in Fort Drum, N.Y., was originally slated to deploy to Iraq but was re-routed to Afghanistan instead, departing in late 2008.

These soldiers represented U.S. forces’ first major push into Logar and Wardak provinces, where heavy anti-coalition resurgence helped make last year the worst for deaths among NATO forces since the war began in 2001.



Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/01/ap_platoon_returns_010910/