Spring 2004
A row of eastern redbud trees is planted along one side of the parade field at Fort Stewart - one for each soldier who did not return home from the war in Iraq.
The trees will bloom each spring, when most of the soldiers died.
Most of the 16,500 soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division made it home, of course - home to their families at the sprawling, swampy training grounds of Fort Stewart, Georgia. The troops that formed "the tip of the spear" that stormed Baghdad and toppled Iraq's dictatorship have resumed their missions as parents and spouses.
Few places in America have given as much to the war effort as Fort Stewart. Indeed, more than 40 soldiers from the 3rd ID and affiliated units died in the war, more casualties than any other American military division at the time of its return.
But the pressures of readjusting to life at home often take their own quiet toll.
Lessons Learned
The soldiers of Fort Stewart have returned to their wives and girlfriends, husbands and boyfriends, and to new babies born while they were away. They're tired, and perhaps a bit irritable. But some returning soldiers may suffer from psychological problems: Cases of depression, drug use and spousal abuse usually rise following a war.
"When the soldier comes back, things are not going to be the way they were when he left," Lucia Braxton, chief of Army Community Services at Fort Stewart, told the Chicago Tribune. "The wife has been in charge, and she isn't going to want to give up that independence. The children have been used to answering to her, and it will be more difficult for him to discipline them."
In the more serious cases, "it happens like clockwork," Braxton said. "First, there are infidelity issues, then financial problems, the children start acting out, and the arguments start."
Attempting to ward off such stresses, every soldier returning to Fort Stewart completed an unprecedented program of psychological and physical evaluations. Additional counseling and support programs were made available to families. Social workers have tried to get soldiers and spouses to talk about their anxieties and frustrations.
"One of the things we've done differently is brief our soldiers on what to expect when they returned home in terms of their feelings, their responses [and] what things would bother them," Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr., commander of the 3rd ID, told the Savannah Morning News in January. "We tried to prepare soldiers to think through that ahead of time and figure out how to deal with it."
"So far, I think we've been pretty successful" in helping the soldiers readjust, Webster said. "I look closely at the indicators of whether drug use, alcohol abuse, DUIs or acts of violence are spiking above what they might have been before we started deploying around the world. Right now, the number of incidents is about the same as it was during normal times."
Fort Stewart hasn't forgotten its children. A $5.6 million teen center recently was completed, and there are more than 30 military-approved day-care facilities. Boys and Girls Clubs are operating, as well as after-school programs where kids experiencing feelings of stress can spend time with counselors and peers.
Going Back?
Webster assumed command in September, taking over a division whose soldiers needed rest and whose equipment - the hundreds of Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and Apache helicopters that comprise the heavy machinery of the 3rd ID - needed repairing.
But almost immediately, the Army ordered Webster to reorganize the division into five fighting brigades to make it a more mobile force, with one brigade to serve as the Army's ready force - able to answer the call to battle within hours.
Then he was greeted with complaints about the treatment of reservists in the base's medical hold unit. Despite the presence of a large hospital, the medical facilities were overwhelmed with the return of virtually the entire 3rd ID and the crunch of reservists, forcing the use of spartan barracks normally reserved for healthy National Guard troops during training.
New standards have been enacted to speed the process for soldiers needing medical care. Barracks renovations also should be starting to provide help.
After a hectic 2003, the new year should prove relatively normal - whatever that means at a complex that serves as the Army's premier launching pad for deployments to Europe and the Middle East, and for the thousands of part-time weekend warriors trained annually to become professional soldiers.
"In 2004, we have no orders to deploy for operations," Webster said. "We do have a very full training calendar with reorganization, combat readiness and preparation to fight in any theater... Every soldier will go to the field and firing ranges more often."
Rumors have swirled that the 3rd ID - or at least parts of it - will have to go back to Iraq sometime in 2005. Webster didn't tiptoe around the issue when he said recently, "You can look out there to March 2005 and recognize all the units in the Army will have been sent to Iraq at least once, if not twice, and will have spent a year there. Although we have no orders, if the United States is still fighting in Iraq, 3rd ID is probably going back."
In the meantime, the redbud trees are set to bloom.
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Fort Stewart/Hunter AAF At A Glance
Fort Stewart is the Army's largest installation east of the Mississippi River, situated on 279,000 acres and stretching across portions of five counties; about 35 miles southwest of Savannah, GA (the sixth busiest post in the U.S.). Nearby Hunter Army Airfield is a major air deployment terminal and the Army's longest runway on the east coast (11,375 feet).
Local Area: Hinesville is the city of choice for living off post; about two-thirds of the 60,000 area residents are military members and their families. New arrivals should use the rental/utility waiver program to help cut the initial expense of relocating by waiving certain deposits.
Housing: Most of the 2,900 existing units are more than 40 years old, and about half have been renovated. Average wait time for on-post housing is at least one year. A massive new project is in the works. Fewer than 30 percent of all Fort Stewart families reside on post.
Schools: Elementary and pre-school children living on post attend one of two DoD schools; after sixth grade, students attend off-post schools.
Adult Education: Liberty Center offers associate, bachelor, master and specialist degree programs from nine colleges and universities on base at Fort Stewart and/or Hunter. At least 10 others are located nearby.
Diversions: A new 143,000 square foot PX and mini-mall opened in October, with a food court and assorted shops and salons. Also on post: five gymnasiums, five pools, two bowling alleys, golf course, skeet range, hunting and fishing areas, movie theatre, hobby and thrift shops, arts and crafts center, sports bar/restaurant.
Off Post: Savannah - with its abundance of quaint shops, restaurants, museums, historical sites and theatres - is about a 45-minute drive from Fort Stewart. Summers are hot and humid, but the beach is only an hour away. If you stay in Hinesville, there's always the local Wal-Mart!
Website: Fort Stewart
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