Welcome home, troops

When I went to the front porch this morning to pick up The Oregonian, my eyes went to a photo of U.S. flags and cheering people (below) and the headline, "Oregon embraces returning soldiers." I was struck by two things -- not just the sense of pride I felt as an Oregonian to see residents lining the streets to welcome home the first wave of National Guardsmen who'd served in Iraq during the past year but my own warm feelings.

There was a time in the late '60s and '70s, when soldiers returning from Vietnam -- and that hellhole of a losing endeavor -- were routinely vilified as "baby-killers" and made out to be the villains of that colossal misadventure in U.S. foreign policy.

With the passage of time, we now recognize that was shameful behavior on the part of anti-war activists, who misdirected their anger at the grunts instead of the generals.

Forty years later, it's a whole different scene. Whether people support U.S. policy in the Middle East or not, I think they are better able to separate the roles of the men and women who volunteer for military service -- whether as regular service members or as part of the Guard -- from the civilian and military higher-ups who make the decisions that put them in harm's way as part of our geopolitical commitments.

In this case, 2,700 Oregonians in the National Guard were assigned to serve in various support roles in Iraq in the state's largest-ever deployment of Guard troops.

My colleagues at The Oregonian -- reporter Julie Sullivan and photographers Jamie Francis and Torsten Kjellstrand -- teamed up to present a terrific story, photos and video documenting the soldiers' journey from Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside Tacoma, Wash., to their families and communities in such places as Bend, Mill City, Detroit and Imnaha.

It was a story about their return to families that have endured their 10-month absence. In some cases, fathers have missed the birth of a son or daughter.

Coincidentally, we spoke with Jordan yesterday just to get an update. He was back home in El Paso, at Fort Bliss, after a couple weeks of training in New Mexico, and enjoying a chill weekend. It's encouraging to hear him speak of future goals, including using the G.I. Bill to get his college degree and possibly becoming an ROTC recruiting officer or attending Officer Candidate School.

We're still not eager to see him deployed but at least the date, for him, has been pushed back to 2012. We understand, though, that he does want that experience and that his military contract calls for him to do so. If he has to re-enlist to go overseas, he'll do it. If and when that happens, he'll know we support him.

Photos by Jamie Francis, The Oregonian. Above: Maj. Micah Goettl greets his daughters for the first time in months after serving in Iraq. Below: Hundreds of people lined the streets in Bend to greet National Guard troops returning home from Iraq.

Julie Sullivan's story: "Oregon embraces returning soldiers"