FORT SILL, Okla_After five
months in Afghanistan, 43 Fort Sill
soldiers returned home Friday. They are members of A battery, 3rd battalion,
13th field artillery.
Although 15 year
veteran, Sergeant First Class Daniel Bonilla has been deployed many times, this
was his first time returning home to a family.
They are
married to each other and to the Army. His wife Joannie has been in the Army for
twelve. He's stationed at Fort Sill and Joannie is in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
They love their
country, they love the Army, they love each other. Living in two different
states, that they don't love. Friday's homecoming at Fort Sill
was sweet for everyone, no matter who you are or where you live.
They've been
waiting for this day for months, for heroes to return, husbands, fathers,
soldiers, men and women. Here at home, waiting for this moment, not much
sleep.
"I did not sleep last night. Well maybe
an hour," Joannie said.
During his
deployment Joannie has been communicating with her husband using Skype and Facebook.
But Friday she won't need a laptop to see the man she loves.
You'd have to
be in her shoes, hear the band, see your true love for the first time in months
and feel the pride swelling deep inside you,
With tears in
his eyes Sergeant First Class Daniel Bonilla, Joannie's husband, and father of
two is overcome with emotion.
"I don't
know these boys, mean a lot to me. Even before the deployment we we're living
kind of apart because you know with her job and my job it's been a long time
since I've been able to be with my family and be with my kids so yeah it's a
little emotional."
They have
experienced things they can't talk about, and we probably wouldn't understand
if they could, but know this, they are happy, happy to be home.
It's certainly not a competition, hard to say that one family at Friday's
homecoming is happier than another, but Daniel and Joannie are among the
happiest. They hope to be stationed together at Fort
Lewis in Seattle, Washington,
sometime soon. They really do love the Army, they both plan to stay in the army
for 20 years before retiring.
