Monday, February 23, 2009

Coming Home: The 'Stars and Stripes' Series

Series Overview with Links to the Series Reports Over several months in 2008, Stars and Stripes reporters and photographers traveled to Iraq, Kuwait and Fort Drum, N.Y., chronicling the lives of the “Triple Deuce” — the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division — both soldiers and their families.

As with most deployed units, there was triumph and tragedy. The unit presided over a calming of their area in northern Iraq, but it endured a horrific truck bomb attack that took the life of one of their own and badly wounded others.

Soldiers in the field pressed on.

When they came home, life was not the same. Children had grown and changed. To their babies, they were strangers. Wives had learned to manage with-out them, even while they yearned for their return.

Today and for the next four days, Stripes will tell the story of men sent to war and the people who supported them from thousands of miles away — the longing, the sorrow, the joy of reuniting and the apprehension at what lay ahead.

Stripes’ Nancy Montgomery will continue to follow the men of Triple Deuce and their families as they adjust to a life informed by war.

Day 1: Series overview

The men of Triple Deuce: ‘Closer than brothers’ in the Army family

Day 2: A truck bomb shatters the calm and bonds the brothers anew:

A moment that changed everything

Master sergeant, wife adjust to new roles and the effects of the bombing

Day 3: Three couples describe how they kept their unions strong during the Triple Deuce’s 14 months in Iraq and after the unit came home:

The Bartells

The Holmeses

The Lees

Day 4: The heartache and hope of life after war:

A family broken by war

For the first time, they're one big family

Day 5: The lawyer turns protester, and the medic becomes a dad:

"The smartest guy in Company B"

When home is as scary as war

Series conclusion

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