Stryker GIs greeted with hug-fest

FORT LEWIS -- Even in the sea of beige camo uniforms, red, white and blue balloons, hyper toddlers, and teary spouses, it was hard to miss Mindi Pearson at yesterday's welcome home for members of the Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

The 26-year-old artist was standing on a metal chair in strappy, spiked size 4 heels, her petite body wrapped in a Versace knockoff she and a friend had created with five layers of fire-engine red sheer fabric and ribboned corset.

"My goal was to be the prettiest woman here," said Pearson, as she waited inside the base's Sheridan Gym for ceremonies to end and her sweetheart, Army Spc. Theodore Nordsieck, to come running.

Pearson had waited nervously for this moment for almost a year. "Sometimes I didn't hear from him for a month at a time," she said. "At first I watched the news, but it stressed me out too much when I heard someone was down, and I didn't know who it was."

Nordsieck was one of 1,135 soldiers in the Stryker Brigade to return to Fort Lewis from duty in Iraq yesterday, bringing the total number home to about 3,000, or three-quarters of the brigade's soldiers.

Soldiers were welcomed back in four separate ceremonies, with rousing marching music, prayers for brigade members lost in Iraq, and words of appreciation for sacrifices in the line of duty.

"Their lives and the lives of their families have been changed forever," said Stryker chaplain Maj. Wayne Garcia

Lt. Gen. Ed Soriano, commander of Fort Lewis, told troops it has been "a tough, tough year, and you stood up to the task."

The Stryker Brigade left last November, spent a few weeks training in Kuwait, moved to camps near Samarra and Balad, then moved on to Mosul, where they were headquartered for the rest of their deployment.

Their duties included conducting raids and ambushes, training Iraqi security forces, and managing civil military projects.

If it wasn't easy to watch events on the news, it wasn't easy to describe them in family calls home, either.

When Sgt. 1st Class Todd Daigle talked to his 4-year-old son Brody -- who asked if he was shooting bad guys -- he simply told him he was "playing in the sand."

That's why Brody always asked him when he called: "Hey, Daddy. Are you still building big sand castles?"

Brody's big sister, Hayley, age 10, said yesterday that it hadn't been much fun without Dad around. She missed their special times together, waking up early to go fishing or biking to Starbucks. And she missed his joking around, calling her a "dork."

"He has a funny laugh -- kind of like Donald Duck," said Hayley.

At school in Lacey, when fifth-grade friends asked where her father worked, she told them Iraq. "They said, 'I'm glad my dad's not in the Army.'

"I told them they should be thankful -- 'because he is helping you.' "

Hayley's little sister, Lindsay, rattled the bleachers, jumping up and down in excitement as Dad came into sight yesterday, marching in formation with brothers- and sisters-in-arms. The instant official ceremonies ended, the Daigle family made a mad dash into Dad's arms.

Within seconds, the gymnasium was a sea of at-ease chaos as bleachers emptied and the long-awaited hug-fest began.

Near the front door, a dress of red was wrapped in a shirt of beige.

It was Mindi Pearson and her awed boyfriend, and their long embrace continued well after most of the families had emptied out of the gym.

Breaking free for a moment -- or maybe it was a second -- Nordsieck struggled for words to describe the glamorous lady with the fresh spray-on tan, chandelier earrings, and gown of red ruffles, slit to the hip.

In the end, the best he could do was a single word.

"Beautiful," he said.

P-I reporter M.L. Lyke can be reached at 206-448-8344 or m.l.lyke@seattlepi.com

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