Members of the 1st Squadron of the 182d Calvary were welcomed home in a ceremony last November in Melrose.
(John Bohn/Globe Staff)
MELROSE - Jeffrey Spurr's first son was just a year old and his wife was pregnant when he was deployed in July 2006 along with other members of his Massachusetts Army National Guard unit to Kosovo.
Yesterday, Spurr and about 220 other members of the 1st Squadron of the 182d Cavalry received an official welcome home from Governor Deval Patrick and other elected officials, veterans organizations, and family and friends. About 300 people attended the hour-long event, held inside the Melrose Memorial Town Hall.
While three months have passed since the unit's return, Spurr, a 21-year-old specialist who works at a New Hampshire rubber-making facility as a civilian, says he feels like he is still starting anew in his household, learning the art of making baby bottles, changing diapers, and all the other challenges that come along with being a new dad, for the second time.
"Having to help her with them, learning to do that, is the toughest part of being back," Spurr said, referring to his 22-year-old wife, Kaitlin Leahey, and their two sons. "I had become so used to taking care of myself while I was over there."
Spurr is not the only member of his unit who has found the adjustment from weapon-bearing peacekeeper to civilian life daunting.
"Things change over a year and a half," said Major Martin Spellacy, minutes after the ceremony ended inside the hall. "Fortunately in Kosovo, nobody was shooting at us, so we didn't have the same kind of stress as the guys in Iraq or Afghanistan, but we're still kind of going through the adjustment period. A lot of us were talking about having difficulty getting back into the groove back here in America."
Spellacy said the unit has received counseling services, and that he and other officers touch base with the soldiers about once a week to chat. "Regrettably, we've had a lot of [relationship] breakups, and guys who have lost jobs because of reorganizations of companies . . . we've run the whole gamut."
The 182d worked in conjunction with forces from Spain, Belgium, Portugal, and France. Their mission included stopping the trafficking of illegal drugs, conducting sniper and weapons training, helping build facilities at local schools, and training the local fire departments.
Standing in front of the seated soldiers, Patrick lauded the unit, saying, "You follow a legacy that goes back centuries, and you have upheld that legacy beautifully."
Later, after the ceremony, Patrick added, "There's a lot of stress having guardsmen and women away, sometimes not knowing whether the end of the mission is really the end of the mission, whether it's going to be extended. And there are practical issues - not just the emotional ones, which are real - such as how to make ends meet and whether their jobs are still going to be available."
In January 2006, Spurr was granted an emergency return to Massachusetts when his wife had complications with the birth of their second son, Wyatt. But soon after rushing to his wife's side during Wyatt's birth, he returned to Kosovo and to his job of patrolling the streets.
"It was tough, leaving my wife and children after that," Spurr said, clutching his first-born son, Jareth, in his arms.
As he spoke, Leahey tended to Wyatt, sitting nearby in a blue stroller.
"It was definitely very tough having to raise two children while he was away," she said, "but I love having him home now and I'd like for it to just stay that way."
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