The Kirchner clan had a goodly portion of the Youth Fitness Center at Fort Polk staked out as all 33 of them waited for their soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Sean Kirchner, to step inside, home at last from his 14 and a half month deployment to Iraq.
"Chloe planned to pack her bags two weeks ago," said Sean's stepmother, Regina, of Sean's little sister, who is four years old. "She was going to Iraq to get her brother."
But the wait continued at the gym and kept some on the edge of their seats as they watched a video of the 270 soldiers disembarking from their plane in Alexandria.
Then, the double doors opened and there they were in the flesh; upright, strong and unharmed, soldiers of the 4th Brigade 10th Mountain Division filed into the gym and lined up opposite their family members. Wives wiped tears away as children grinned and wiggled when they saw their fathers.
Some were deprived of that first glimpse as the soldiers kept marching in, a single file that soon became a sea of camoflage.
"Wives, children, mothers, fathers and grandparents go find your soldier," said Garrison Commander Col. David Sage, after a brief ceremony in which he welcomed the returning soldiers home.
And then the two groups, at first facing each other and separated by a scant few yards of gym floor, became one again, the months and miles of separation falling away.
Some knew exactly where their soldier was and made beelines to get there for that first touch.
The Kirchner clan had to endure a longer wait as they had not seen Sean come in. Tammy, his wife, stood on a chair with her two sons, Sean, Jr., 10, and Dalton, 6, to scan the room for her husband.
After what seemed like an eternity, her face bloomed and she began snaking through the crowd, a line of fifteen children and just as many adults streaming out behind her.
Sean is big brother to 13 children, most under the age of 14.
"All of the kids started out as foster kids," Sean, 37, said later. "My dad and stepmom ended up adopting them. Chloe was a newborn when they got her. All of them were really young. They're great kids."
And clearly they think the same of him, as they swarmed him when they finally reached him across the gym.
First the wife, then the children, was the order of business as Sean and Tammy wrapped their arms around each other. Then Sean, Jr. and Dalton were there getting in on the action followed closely by Chloe and a dozen more kids. Sean's parents and grandparents reached over the heads of the children to touch him, while others had to settle for a wave and the promise of more contact later.
The gymnasium quickly emptied as families gathered up their soldiers to go home.
Once outside, soldiers tossed their rucksacks into vehicles and headed for home. The Kirchners had planned a pizza party.
"I'm kind of relieved now," said Tammy of Sean's return. "It's like ten thousand pounds off our shoulders." Her first thoughts when she laid eyes on him were "He's home safe, all in one piece and not hurt," she said.
The couple have been married for eleven year, and this is not the first time they've been separated for a long deployment.
In fact, Sean said, the last three Christmases he and his unit have spent deployed, first to Afghanistan, then the last two in Iraq. In all, Sean has been deployed three times.
"That's pretty much the hardest part, missing anniversaries and birthdays and first days of school," said the soldier who is from Cleveland, Texas.
Now that he's home, he plans to take advantage of that family time and get in some hunting and fishing with his boys, he said.
But his immediate plan was for a hot shower.
"It's the first time he's gotten to take a really hot shower in a good while," said Tammy who plans on keeping him to herself and her boys as much as possible over the coming weeks.
"I'm ready to be selfish now," she said. "We're going to do whatever he wants to do. We're not making any plans because he's been on a schedule for the last 14 and a half months. It's all about him right now."
Fort Polk, La. —
