'Answer to a prayer': Indiana families welcome home National Guard soldiers from Iraq

A football field of concrete separated the soldiers stepping off the plane from their squiggling children waiting at the very edge of the Indianapolis airport hangar, where families were asked to stay put.

"If you're not sure, he's the one wearing green!" Bruce Butler, of Greenwood, leaned over to tell his 3-year-old granddaughter, Amelia Brenchley, dressed America-themed from head to toe and already practicing her hand-waving.

"My dad's wearing green!" she said.

It was almost fruitless to enforce the hangar's perimeter. As the soldiers in green neared with their bags, children couldn't help but spill over into the hot sun and run a few feet into their kneeling parents' arms.

About 300 Indiana National Guard soldiers with the 163rd Field Artillery Regiment, headquartered in Evansville, arrived home Thursday after a nine-month deployment in Iraq, plus three months of training. They arrived in two planes in an airfield next to the Indianapolis International Airport; another one went to Evansville.

That's a year away from their families, and Amelia Brenchley's first year without her father, John. During that year, she carried with her a stuffed doll that had a picture of her father on it ― her "Daddy Doll."

"Daddy doll went everywhere with us," wife Bridget Brenchley said. "Gosh, so many places. We didn’t go a single place without Daddy."

"If she did," 8-year-old sister Melanie said, "it'd be a fit!"

For her part, Melanie took solace in taking care of her horse, Bubblegum ― also known as Bubbles ― and taking her to horse shows.

For the single parent left at home, like Bridget, it's a full year of rushing kids to school, shuttling them to activities, putting them to bed and praying for a Wi-Fi signal on the other end in Iraq, one day at a time.

Their spouses were deployed as a part of Operation Inherent Resolve, where they helped Iraqi coalition forces monitor and defend air space. It's been a somewhat busy period for the Indiana National Guard, Master Sgt. Jeff Lowry said ― there are still some troops in the Sinai Peninsula, and some more came home a few weeks ago from Kosovo. But deployments are certainly fewer and further between than they were during the height of the Iraq war, he said.

The U.S. and other countries have been withdrawing troops from Iraq since 2017, when the Iraqi government declared victory over the Islamic State. In December 2021, the U.S. officially ended its combat mission, but a small number of troops ― about 2,500 ― remain in Iraq to help train and advise Iraqi military forces, who still face the challenge of rebuilding their country and defending against a resurgence of the Islamic State.

So younger families are a bit more used to having their soldiers living at home most of the time, reporting for drills once a month and for two weeks in the summer. For the Brenchleys, it's the first deployment since the kids came along. For Anna and Erik Kile, of Greenfield, it's the first deployment since he joined the Indiana National Guard in 2015.

Last May, the Kiles had just decided on designs for a new house they wanted to build when Erik Kile found out about his deployment. They also got another bit of news: Anna was pregnant with their first child.

"I was wondering how I was going to make it work," she said. But she had family nearby, and Erik took a week-long leave to see the birth of his daughter, Sophia, though he made it there just hours before the delivery.

Other families have been through the ringer before. Every reunion is different, Katie Young, of Lafayette, said: the last time her husband, Matt, came home from Afghanistan, they reunited for an hour, only to have to say goodbye again so he could go through demobilization for a few days at Camp Atterbury.

In Indianapolis on Thursday, families couldn't get out of the hangar fast enough to go home, with no particular plans but to spend time together.

"This is the good kind (of reunion)," Katie Young said. "You don't have to let go again."

For each flight's arrival, dozens of families waved American flags, hollered at their loved ones and held phones out to record video as their soldiers walked toward them. But Rose Prairie, of Brownsburg, stood stoic, waiting for her son, David.

She was thinking of David's two young children, who they planned to surprise at school pickup. The youngest was just 5 months old during the last deployment; this time, he's 4 years old.

She was thinking of her own father, who had served in the Navy and passed away last year.

"With Dad gone, David gone, it’s been awful," she said, fighting tears. "This is the answer to a prayer."

The multiple generations of this Brownsburg family are close. During the last deployment, the younger Prairies moved into a house just a few blocks from Rose Prairie. So the cover story Thursday was that Grandma would be walking the kids home from school.

But first, she got to greet her son. Her tears flowed; wide-eyed and brimming with joy, David Prairie was also distracted ― his mind was already elsewhere, at the school where he'd surprise his kids.

"I’m just excited that I get the first David hug," Rose Prairie said.

Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@indystar.com or follow her on Twitter @kayla_dwyer17.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: National Guard troops return home to Indiana from Iraq