Slow returns anger Army wives

HINESVILLE, Ga. - Angry Army wives were gathered in a vacant southeast Georgia shopping center parking lot to voice their frustration and anger over news that some of their soldier-husbands might not be coming home from Iraq for a while.

ADVERTISEMENT

Have a thought? Go to the Forums or Chat.

Subscribe  E-mail this story  Write a letter to the Editor  Printer-friendly version  Get news on your PDA  Get e-mail headlines

The impromptu gathering took place Sunday night after a family readiness group meeting was held at Fort Stewart where Army spouses of the main invasion force received confirmation of a rumor that had been circulating all weekend.

Tabitha Giles, whose husband is an infantry scout in 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry, said she first learned her husband wouldn't be coming home next month through an e-mail Sunday morning. Then she attended the meeting.

"They told us they will not be home by August," Ms. Giles said. "The earliest will be September but they can't guarantee us that."

Families got their hopes up when the 3rd Infantry Division released a return timeline July 7 and some troops began trickling home this week. A press release about the homecoming stated that the 3rd Brigade, based at Fort Benning, Ga., would begin its return July 11. It also said some Fort Stewart-based units that are no longer needed in Iraq would begin coming home this month.

Wives got their hopes up by focusing on those dates even though they were never promised, said Rich Olson, a division spokesman.

"I went back and read all of that a little while ago and it says 'we hope,' 'we're pushing,' 'we'll try,' and things like that," Mr. Olson said. "Here's the situation - these people keep building up deadlines on their own."

Mr. Olson said the 3rd Infantry Division continues its mission in Fallujah, near the Iraqi/Jordanian border. They were sent there in June to weed out Saddam Hussein loyalists. Soldiers also have been helping patrol Baghdad.

"I'm sure if 3rd ID forces are needed in theater, they'll stay in place," Mr. Olson said.

Sunday's uproar was the second time military families have been told a tentative timeline only to have it yanked away. After President Bush declared the end of combat operations in May, families heard that the 3rd Division would come home in June. That soon changed as sniper and other attacks continued in Iraq, and the Department of Defense decided it needed more troops than originally planned.

--From the Tuesday, July 15, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle