News Article

By: BILL JONES/Staff Writer
Source: The Greeneville Sun
06-08-2005

MOSHEIM — About 100 friends and family members gathered at Anna Sue Ward Park here Tuesday afternoon to welcome home a local U.S. Army reservist who is on leave from duty in Kuwait.

The gathering in honor of Staff Sgt. Heath Haun, 25, a member of Greeneville-based Company C of the U.S. Army Reserve’s 844th Engineer Battalion, featured a barbecue meal and fellowship inside a picnic pavilion at the park.

While Haun, who was dressed in casual clothing, spoke quietly with friends and family members, his mother, Cindy Lou Haun; father, Jake Haun; sister, Holly Haun Williams; and other family members worked to keep the barbecue serving line moving during the 5:30 p.m. gathering.

Among the visitors was Sgt. 1st Class Jon Taber, a Greeneville resident who also is a member of Company C. Taber was transferred from Company C to a Mississippi-based U.S. Army Reserve unit in early 2004 and spent a year in Iraq before returning home earlier this year.

The entire 844th Engineer Battalion was called to active duty last fall and sent to Kuwait last December while Taber was still in Iraq with the Mississippi unit.

On Tuesday afternoon, Taber said he just dropped by to say hello to his friend, Staff Sgt. Heath Haun.

Cindy Lou Haun, who is a secretary at West Greene High School, said the Haun family had decided that having a reception was the best way to enable as many friends and family members as possible to see Heath while he was home on two weeks of leave.

Other participants pointed out that Tuesday also was Jake and Cindy Lou Haun’s 30th wedding anniversary.

Asked about the anniversary, Mrs. Haun said, "what better way is there to spend it than with family and friends."

Among those family friends present were Sheriff Steve Burns and his wife, Glynnis. The sheriff said Heath Haun and his son, Jay Burns, had been friends throughout their years at Mosheim Elementary School.

Jay Burns is now a U.S. Army officer, the sheriff said. Another family friend who attended the event was Larry Bible, principal of West Greene High School. Bible recalled that he had coached Heath when he was a member of the WGHS baseball team and the football team.

"He was a three-sport athlete," Bible said, noting that Heath played baseball, football and basketball during his high school career.

Cindy Lou Haun said Heath had suffered a shoulder injury while playing football that curtailed his ability to play baseball at the college level as he had hoped.

Discusses Middle East Duty

During a Tuesday afternoon interview, Staff Sgt. Haun said he arrived home on leave from Kuwait on June 1 and is scheduled to return there on June 19.

He noted that he had been poised late last summer to enter the final semester of his studies at the University of Tennessee toward a degree in environmental science when he learned that the 844th Engineer Battalion was to be called to active duty.

He said he now has spent about eight years in the Army Reserve.

Haun said he dropped out of college to prepare for the expected call to active duty last year, but plans to return to school when the 844th’s deployment to Kuwait ends. "We hope we'll be home by Christmas," he said, when asked when the unit might return to the U.S.

Haun said the 844th arrived for duty in Kuwait last Dec. 17 and has been busy improving military bases and roads in Kuwait since that time.

He said the weather was "incredibly cold" when the members of Company C and other 844th units arrived in Kuwait last December.

But by May, he said, the temperatures had skyrocketed to the 130-degree range during the day.

Haun noted that he is serving as a squad leader in Company C's earth-moving platoon.

"We’ve been going to work at 3 a.m. and working until about noon, when we can to avoid the hottest part of the day."

He said Company C's living quarters in Kuwait have air conditioning, but that with daytime temperatures in excess of 130 degrees, the air conditioning units cannot always compensate.

At night, when temperatures sometimes fall below 100 degrees, the air conditioning units become more effective, he said.

Haun said he had found electronic mail to be the best method of communicating with family and friends at home from Kuwait.

He also said that because of the long hours the Company C soldiers are working in Kuwait, and sometimes in Iraq, there is often little time for recreation.

Sun Photo by Jim Feltman - U.S. Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Heath Haun, shown at center above, was surrounded by his parents and siblings when this photo was taken at a Tuesday afternoon reception in his honor at Anna Sue Ward Park in Mosheim. Haun, a member of Greeneville-based Company C of the 844th Engineer Battalion, is home on leave from duty in Kuwait, where he and other local reservists have been serving since last December. Pictured above, from left, are sister Holly Haun Williams; father, Jake Haun; Heath Haun; mother, Cindy Lou Haun; and brother, Hayden Haun.

Story Copyright to The Greeneville Sun