Guard welcomed home
POST FALLS – After the heat and sandstorms of Iraq, the cool temperatures and spring downpour brought smiles Saturday to the faces of returning Idaho National Guard soldiers.
Broadening their smiles even more were the friendly faces of flag-waving, cheering townsfolk, officially welcoming the 116th Combat Engineer Battalion back from the war in the first-ever Post Falls Armed Services parade.
There was no band – only a police motorcycle escort, followed by a red-white-and-blue recruiting Humvee, an Honor Guard and about 50 of the soldiers from two of the guard unit’s companies based in North Idaho, led by Brig. Gen. Alan Gayhart.
The combat-engineer soldiers, wearing black berets, were followed by two heavy trucks, like those they used in Iraq, and members of various veterans organizations.
The parade was organized in part by Post Falls Mayor Clay Larkin who promised the Idaho citizen-soldiers before they deployed to Iraq to welcome them home in a manner “befitting their heroic and selfless service to America.”
The Post Falls mayor rode clean-up in the parade in a police department Camaro, using its public address system to thank the sparse crowd for showing up.
The enthusiasm seemed to last longer than the rain-soaked parade down Seltice Way.
Over in a matter of minutes, it was nonetheless memorable, according to the soldiers and their families and supporters who donned umbrellas, waved U.S. flags and cheered for the camo-clad troops.
There wasn’t an anti-war demonstrator to be seen.
The guard unit returned in small groups last November but didn’t get an official “welcome home” in North Idaho until Saturday’s parade. There was another parade earlier in Pocatello in southern Idaho.
“I’m here to cheer our boys on,” said 81-year-old Thurman Moore, a World War II veteran, who lives in Coeur d’Alene.
“These are OUR boys,” he said with a U.S. flag in one hand, an umbrella in the other.
He arrived with a small American flag, but was given a larger one after the WWII veteran was spotted by the parading soldiers. They used a petty cash fund to buy 60 small flags to hand out to spectators, said Sgt. First Class Danny Erckenbrack of Post Falls.
Moore’s wife, Grace, said standing in the rain squall was worth it to “show our support for our service men and women.”
Nearby, Sharon Haug, of Post Falls, said the same thing.
“I’m here to support our troops,” the 59-year-old woman said. “To say, ‘Good job and we’re behind you.’ “
“What’s a little rain when you compare it to what they’ve been through?” Haug said.
“It’s great to see this citizen support,” Gen. Gayhart said after the parade. Now serving as deputy commanding general of the Idaho Army National Guard in Boise, he traveled to North Idaho for the short parade.
Afterwards, he posed for pictures in the rain with his troops.
“The rain feels kind of good,” the general said.
The Idaho Guard unit, joined with soldiers from similar reserve units in other states, was deployed to the Kirkuk region in northern Iraq where its members saw some combat, Gayhart said. There were no casualties.
The Idaho guard unit currently doesn’t have any pending orders to return to Iraq, the general said.