FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Stacey Lockwood is ready for a normal life, and if it takes a little sleep deprivation to get there, so be it.
The 27-year-old sergeant in the 142nd Engineer Combat Battalion arrived here from Iraq at 4 a.m. Tuesday. She is among 61 soldiers of the Fargo-based Headquarters Support Company to start her paperwork and medical testing at 10 a.m., hoping to head home Saturday.
Lockwood has seen her husband just a few days since they married in January. His tour of duty in Afghanistan ends next week.
"We get to be married. Together. It's going to be great," she said. "I'm ready."
After nearly a year in Iraq, the North Dakota National Guard troops would jump through flaming hoops to get home. Or, stand in line for five days of paperwork.
ADVERTISEMENT
They Army has hurried the hurry-up-and-wait of the medical checks and other needed paperwork, whittling the time to five days.
Still, Fort Carson has 8,000 infantry and armor troops of its own returning, along with thousands of National Guard and Reserve troops, said Master Sgt. John Schwed, who helps coordinate the processing station. Thousands of others are outbound to Iraq and Kuwait.
The processing station can handle 3,000 soldiers a month, Schwed said. Planeloads of soldiers arrive at all hours and 16- to 18-hour days are not unusual, he said.
Still, the Vietnam veteran doesn't want soldiers to leave without getting medical and dental care and knowing their rights.
"That's the important point, to take care of them now, mentally and physically," he said. "... If we don't take better care of them now, they'll be in turmoil" later.
At times, the medical screening area is controlled chaos. At one point, Tiffany, a civilian worker who won't give her last name, gets on a chair to read directions to a group from the 142nd.
"Don't lose this," Tiffany yells, holding a paper over her head. "Lose this and we lose you. If we lose you, you come back here and do everything over again. Got it?"
"This is SRP (Soldier Readiness Processing). This is normal," said longtime Guard member Sgt. Deb Knapper, 40, of Dilworth. Then she gets up to take a quick smoking break.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Believe me, I'll be back before this line moves," she said, heading down the stairs.
Sgt. 1st Class Rob Shepherd, 37, of Devils Lake is all for the thorough checks. That way, "twenty years down the road, if something pops up, the military will take care of it."
The 142nd had 73 soldiers arrive Sunday, 74 Monday and 61 Tuesday. About 200 are expected today. Eight were in an advance group. More are due to arrive Monday.
The first group done with its paperwork should arrive in North Dakota Saturday.
"I'm still in a dream world. It doesn't feel real" to be going home, said Spc. Tammy Nesheim of Fargo.
She looks forward to her 28th birthday, planning a wedding and watching non-military-produced TV.
"I just want to relax and watch TV and watch real commercials. I was at the chow hall and I said, 'That's a real commercial. That's real TV!'"
Waiting in another line, Staff Sgt. Cheryl Heitkamp, 42, of Fargo, says her three children, ages 20, 18 and 14, know she's on the way.
ADVERTISEMENT
"It's time for Mom to come home," she said.
She adds that she'll take her time with all the choices that will face her -- except one.
"A bubble bath is the first thing," she said.
Staff Sgt. Robert Nickley of Casselton, N.D., also has his eyes on the prize, getting back to his wife and two children.
But as he shifted seats to move to another paperwork station, Nickley said there is one thing he won't do for a while.
"Not stand in line for anything," he said.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Helmut Schmidt at (701) 241-5583
