Guardsman returns to Iraq with family's hugs

It was the kind of morning a family might have if a son were leaving to spend a semester abroad, or maybe heading back to a faraway college after summer break.

There were bags to pack, a trunk to load, a flight to catch.

With his Army duffel bag already lying in the back of his rental car, Kevin Blomfield sat on the couch in his parents' den, the legs of his military fatigues tucked into the tops of his desert combat boots. His two younger sisters helped bring the last of his bags out of his room and set them on the carpet.

With the family preparing to move to Australia next month, and him leaving to finish his tour in Iraq, Friday morning was the last time they would be together in Augusta.

Spc. Blomfield's face was blank.

"You ready, Kev?" asked his father, the Rev. Rodney Blomfield.

"Yeah, I suppose," he said.

Spc. Blomfield, a 26-year-old gunner serving with the Georgia Army National Guard's 48th Brigade Combat Team, was heading back into a war zone that seems to have grown more violent since he came home for a 15-day leave.

A few days before he left, four 48th Brigade soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb, among them Sgt. James Kinlow, of Thomson. A few days later, four more died in a similar incident, among them Sgt. David Jones Sr., a jailer with the Richmond County Sheriff's Office, who was laid to rest in Augusta on Friday. All eight were in Alpha Company with Spc. Blomfield but in a different platoon.

Last week, three more 48th soldiers were killed in a car bomb attack.

Spc. Blomfield is stationed at Camp Striker, and he mans a machine-gun turret in a Humvee on patrols of a sector southwest of Baghdad, just south of Abu Ghraib. On one such patrol, his Humvee driver was shot in the arm.

During his leave, Spc. Blomfield went camping with friends, spent a weekend at the beach, played tennis and saw The Dukes of Hazzard with his father.

He admitted he's nervous about going back.

"I feel like it's all in God's hands," Spc. Blomfield said. "I feel like he's in control. It'll all happen according to his will."

Spc. Blomfield is one of six adopted children of the Rev. Blomfield and his wife, Susan. The Australian couple moved to the United States in 1992 and has been in Augusta for the past five years. The Rev. Blomfield served as an associate pastor at Burns Memorial United Methodist Church on Lumpkin Road.

Next month, they're moving to Brisbane, Australia, where the Rev. Blomfield is taking a position at another Methodist church.

After Spc. Blomfield checked his bags at Augusta Regional Airport, the family sat in a row of chairs in the terminal waiting area, chatting softly and chuckling occasionally. The voice of a news commentator boomed from a television overhead.

Spc. Blomfield said he expects his tour to be finished in May.

"It's just nine months," he told his family.

The call for his flight came, and they followed him outside down the covered walkway. He hugged them one at a time, then moved through a glass door to the security checkpoint.

"Have fun," Mrs. Blomfield said, holding back tears. "Don't forget to duck," she joked.

The Rev. Blomfield said he's praying that his son comes home safely.

Spc. Blomfield joined the Army National Guard the spring before Sept. 11, 2001, to help pay for college, and the family never thought he'd end up in a war.

"It doesn't matter whether we like it or not," the Rev. Blomfield said. "We're going to support him all the way."

Reach Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225 or johnny.edwards@augustachronicle.com.