10/29/05

"It's been quite an experience," she said Thursday duirng a welcome-home reception for members of Tennessee's 278th Regimental Combat Team, which includes dozens of members from Rutherford County.

Her husband, Sgt. Stacy Jernigan, served in Iraq with the 278th and she spent the last year keeping the home fires burning in her Cookeville, Tenn., home with her three children, Lance, 9; Cynthia, 8; and Ashley, 6.

Stacy was a Bradley fighting vehicle mechanic in Iraq. Michelle Jernigan said he went out into the field to collect the broken-down vehicles and return to base and fix them.

Michelle Jernigan said she didn't worry too much as long as the couple were able to talk on the telephone and via e-mail.

Besides checking on his well-being, Michelle Jernigan said she and her husband carried on a dialogue about their future, she said, including where to live. Both had been students at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville before Stacy Jernigan was deployed.

Now, she said he is looking to join the military full-time serving at Camp Shelby, which is one reason she rented the trailer, to scout around for a new home.

Ashley Jernigan said she missed her daddy most at night while he was gone. She missed him reading to her and tucking her in bed.

Ashley and her older sister, Cynthia, created their own sandals with bright red, white and blue fringe on them to wear to the homecoming event at the hangar in Gulfport on Thursday afternoon.

Michelle Jernigan sewed the girls' outfits, skirts and tops in patriotic hues of red, white and blue.

When Stacy Jenigan was dismissed from his baggage detail, which delayed the Jernigan reunion by some 30 minutes, he came over to the family and hugged and kissed them all and they all clung together for some time.

Also on hand for the homecoming were Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen and his wife, Andrea Conte.

"I really like telling them 'welcome home, I'm glad you're back safely,'" Bredesen said.

Elizabeth Warner of Clarksville was there at the hangar waiting along with her children, Nyssa, 9-years-old, Tony, 7, and Gregory, 5.

The children were dressed in matching camouflage outfits, including a skirt for daughter Nyssa.

"Leaving was the hardest part," Nyssa said, referring to her father, Sgt. Kevin Warner. He came home for two weeks of rest and relaxation, but the girl said it was hard again when he had to go back.

Schanda Doughty struggled to maintain control of her 2-year-old red-haired son, Connor, as they stood with all of the others awaiting the arrival of the World Airways aircraft. Doughty and son arrived an hour before the flight was due in and Connor had grown bored of waving the small flag he had been amusing himself with.

At times, while watching the soldiers exit the aircraft, he would turn to his mother and yell "that's daddy." It was on the eighth or so round of excitement that it was, in fact, Staff Sgt. Andrew Doughty walking down the line among the other uniformed soldiers.

Schanda, with little Connor in her arms, forgot all decorum and raced to him, . She and the fully uniformed soldier hugged and kissed, with an M-16 clung at his side. After awhile, Andrew took his son into his arms.

The bulk of the 278th Regimental Combat Team will return to U.S. soil by Nov. 4. There will be six to seven days of reverse deployment processing, and then they will be transported back to their hometowns. Only a few of the families and loved ones of the 300 troops that arrived on Thursday afternoon were there to greet their soldiers.

Originally published October 29, 2005

Story Copyright to The Daily News Journal