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thedrifter
12-04-07, 06:46 AM
Home for the holidays

JENNIFER HLAD
December 4, 2007 - 1:57AM
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Staff Sgt. Jason Hall had never deployed before. He was stationed with a nondeployable unit in Lawton, Okla., when he learned he would be deploying to Iraq for a year as part of a military transition team.

It was not easy, said his wife, Kimberly Hall.

"I didn't understand what it meant to be a Marine wife," Hall said Monday as she waited for her husband - whom she calls her rock, her best friend and her hero - to come home.

"I'm definitely a much stronger person (now). I'm definitely a better mother," she said.

Hall was one of 99 Marines and sailors returning to Camp Lejeune from one-year deployments with military transition teams - small groups embedded with Iraqi Army soldiers.

The troops, like Hall, came from all over the country and go through an extensive three-month training program - learning language and culture, communications, first aid, convoy operations, weapons systems and other skills - before they leave to train Iraqi soldiers.

Kimberly Hall and the couple's three children stayed in Oklahoma for the first three months, when Jason Hall was training at Camp Lejeune. When he left for Iraq, the family moved in with his parents in Charles Town, W.V.

Being away from home for a year was difficult, Jason Hall said, because of the things he missed.

"Not watching your kids grow up. Not being around when they get good grades, or score a goal," he said.

Kimberly Hall remembers the awkwardness of going with her 8-year-old to purchase a cup for baseball - with everyone wishing Dad was there to help.

And living in a nonmilitary community, out of touch with unit representatives, was a challenge.

She said the only information she ever heard was from her husband. She only knew about the time of the homecoming because she happened to run into another wife Sunday when checking directions.

"I would hope to God that no one ever would have to go through that," she said.

This was the third deployment for Lisa Pizzaro's husband, Staff Sgt. Michael Pizzaro. But it was the longest.

"It was a lot harder," Lisa Pizzaro said. "Your kids are growing up."

In the year Michael Pizzaro was gone, one of his sons entered middle school. The other - in high school - earned his driver's permit and had hoped to drive dad home, but Lisa Pizzaro vetoed that idea.

But a 15-day leave period in the middle of the deployment did help, Pizzaro said. And constant information and assistance from a Key Volunteer also made it easier, she said.

The homecoming was the second for Staff Sgt. John Santiago and his wife Elisa Santiago, who, like Pizzaro, lives at Cherry Point Air Station.

But it was a difficult one for the family, especially 5-year-old Christiana, Elisa Santiago said.

When John Santiago left, Christiana was only 4 years old and didn't understand what was going on, Elisa Santiago said.

"She kept asking when Daddy was coming home, and 'Does he still love me?'" Elisa Santiago said.

Monday, Christiana was excited to see her daddy, and said she could not wait to play Mario Party with him. She also planned to host a tea party.

It was difficult for him to miss the year with his three children, and the couple's 10th wedding anniversary, Elisa Santiago said.

But each of the three men said that while it was difficult to be away from their families, they saw a great deal of progress during their time in Iraq.

"There's a lot of change, a lot of improvements," Pizzaro said. "The Iraqi units are willing to train."

Hall also saw progress, and said the men became friends with their Iraqi counterparts.

Maj. Mike Davis, stationed in Virginia, said the teams were realistic about the change they would be able to make in a year's time.

"We were trying to move the flag a little bit further down the field," he said. "I think we did that."



Contact military reporter Jennifer Hlad at jhlad@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, ext. 8467. To comment on this story, visit www.jdnews.com.

Ellie