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Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson military families and friends welcomed home hundreds of paratroopers back home Monday morning from a deployment in Afghanistan.
JBER paratrooper Sebastian Dew last saw his daughter in person when she was only nine days old. His wife, Krysteena Dew, has spent 12 months corresponding with him via email and Skype.
“I think it's going to take him by surprise how big she is, because seeing it on camera through a computer doesn't compare to physically being able to hold her,” Krysteena Dew said.
It’s one of the stories among the 230 soldiers that returned home to Alaska after a year deployment in the eastern provinces of Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Army wife Sherrill Wirtenson said “your priorities are different, and you want him home to experience kids growing up, like her crawling or her walking or her talking, whereas before, we didn't have to worry about any of that, it was just me.”
The troops are assigned to the 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th infantry division.
The remaining 3,000 troops in the brigade will return in a series of flights from late September until the end of October.
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