10/23/05

By LEON ALLIGOOD
Staff Writer

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. — Natalie Howell, who is "almost 4," has brownish-blond hair that ends in ringlets on the nape of her little neck.

Even more than a new doll or other playthings, the only present she wants when she blows out the quartet of candles on her birthday cake Nov. 19 is to have her soldier daddy home. Uncle Sam will likely grant her wish.

The 278th Regimental Combat Team, of which Sgt. David Howell is a member, already has begun its exodus from Iraq. The first large wave, about 700 members, of the returning unit is expected to arrive tomorrow at the airport in Gulfport, Miss. More planeloads are expected nearly every day for several weeks until all 4,000 soldiers of the 278th are back in the United States.

Sometime this week, Sgt. David Howell, 38, is expected to join other members of K Troop from the 278th's 3rd Squadron, as they begin retracing the journey they made in November. After spending a few days in Kuwait and between seven to 10 additional days at Camp Shelby, Miss., Natalie's father (as well as the dad of Natalie's big brothers, Nathan, 13, and Logan, 9) will board a bus bound for Middle Tennessee. He is expected to arrive back at the family's home on North Jefferson Street here in time to help with decorating his daughter's cake.

"We can't wait," said Christi Howell, the little girl's mom and wife of Sgt. Howell.

"It's been a long year."

It's an observation every spouse, sister, brother, father, mother, significant other and friend of 278th soldiers across the state would readily agree with. The past 12 months have been, at times, a barrel roll ride of emotion and fear, while other days passed as if they were ordinary, days that would end with their loved one strolling into the kitchen, asking "What's for dinner?"

"Of course, then you'd remember where they were, and they weren't going to be home for dinner, not yet,'' said Loretta Steele of Hartsville. Her husband is Sgt. Greg Steele, 30, a member of L Troop of the 3rd Squadron. Like Sgt. Howell, Steele is a gunner in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. He, too, is on his way home in the next couple of weeks.

Sometimes the account of an attack in which American soldiers were killed or injured would scroll across the television screen, leaving Christi Howell afraid the bad news would involve her husband.

"There were times when I didn't talk to him for a week or so, and then you hear of all this trouble over there and you begin to wonder. Then the phone rings and — whew — he's safe,'' Howell said.

But sometimes, the calls were about other 278th soldiers who were wounded or killed during fighting.

"Those were tough because he knew some of those soldiers personally, but even when he didn't, it was still tough because the 278th is such a family,'' Howell said.

For Loretta Steele, this was the second time an Army deployment had put a few time zones between her and her man. About 10 years ago, when Sgt. Steele was a soldier with the 101st Airborne Division, he was assigned to Korea for a year. He's been in the National Guard for the past eight years.

This deployment has been different because the couple has two children, Greg Jr., 10, and Colleen, 7.

"It's been pretty rough. It's harder than you think. It's been a time where I did some things that he normally would have done,'' Loretta Steele said.

Like sitting still in chilly woods with her son while waiting for a buck to cruise by.

"I took him hunting last fall. It's something he loves to do. We saw some deer but didn't get one,'' she said.

"This year, he gets to go hunting. That's on my son's list for things to do with his father. That and go four-wheeling."

The family now has more land to explore, 17 acres to be precise, than when her husband left the states. During the interim, Steele handled the purchase of a house and acreage. It is not a surprise purchase. The couple talked about the transaction frequently during their weekly phone conversations, Steele said.

She would have preferred for him to be home for the closing of the sale, "but that's why we get power of attorney" before troops depart.

Both women are eager for the return of normalcy, when Greg Steele returns to his job at Fleetwood, a mobile home manufacturer in Gallatin, and David Howell returns to his job at Coca-Cola in Cookeville.

"I'm ready for some help with parenting. I'm about to reach parent burnout. I don't know how single women do it all the time. Being mom and dad for a year and a half is hard,'' Christi Howell said.

"We're moving all the time so it's been a blur to be honest. We've settled into a routine. I know it's gone faster here than it has there, but it's been challenging. Church and family, family and church have made a huge difference. That's how we got through," she added.

Loretta Steele said she would be happy to be able to talk to her husband without the barrier of the war between them.

"It's been a struggle because we didn't talk about what he was doing. He didn't tell me, and I didn't ask. I knew that he was seeing some things he couldn't talk about,'' she said.

"I just want to have him home."

Story Copyright to The Tennessean

278th RCT primer

The combination of 3,000 members of the Tennessee Army National Guard's 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment and 1,000 Guard members from Wisconsin, Texas, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Vermont formed the 278th Regimental Combat Team.

Deployment of the 278th, which traces its lineage to Revolutionary War militia units in Tennessee, marked the largest deployment of Tennessee military since World War II. The combat team has been in Iraq since November. They were mobilized in June 2004.

The unit's motto is: "I volunteer sir."

Tennessee Guardsmen come from across the state, but there are 13 armories in Middle Tennessee: Clarksville, Nashville, Monteagle, Cookeville, McMinnville, Jamestown, Livingston, Springfield, Gallatin, Lafayette, Gordonsville, Sparta and Crossville. There are five squadrons in the unit, which has headquarters in Knoxville.

The 278th is a force trained for reconnaissance, surveillance and security.

Their primary weapons are the M1A1 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. In Iraq, the unit provided security in towns northeast of Baghdad, as well as assistance to build schools and hospitals.

In the Line of Duty

These soldiers of the 278th Regimental Combat Team died during their unit's yearlong deployment to Iraq:

March 20 Spc. Paul William Thomason III, Talbot, 37, killed by a roadside bomb

April 4 Sgt. Stephen Curtis Kennedy, 35, Oak Ridge, killed by hostile fire

May 25 Sgt. Alfred Barton Siler, 33, Clairfield, died in a traffic accident

June 9 Staff Sgt. Mark Oscar Edwards, 40, Erwin, died in sleep

Aug. 14 Sgt. Gary Lee Reese Jr., 22, Ashland City, killed by hostile fire

Aug. 14 Staff Sgt. Asbury F. Hawn Jr., 35, Lebanon, killed by hostile fire

Aug. 14 Sgt. Shannon D. Taylor, 30, Smithville, killed by hostile fire

Aug. 22 Spc. Joseph Hunt, 27, Sweetwater, killed by a roadside bomb

Aug. 22 Sgt. Victoir P. Lieurance, 34, Seymour, killed by a roadside bomb

Oct. 13 Spc. Robert Wesley Tucker, 20, Celina, killed by a roadside bomb