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Tali Greener/Norwich Bulletin
Staff Sgt. Earl Dean Jr. sits in his parents' Griswold home Wednesday with his wife, Liana. Dean returned from Iraq Tuesday night after a 13-month deployment. REUNION TIPS Tips for reuniting with a soldier returning from deployment: -- Source: Chemical and Biological Defense Information Analysis Center
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GRISWOLD-- Most mothers don't save all the answering machine
messages they get from their sons, unless he's been in Iraq for more
than a year.
"I knew that if anything happened to him, that was all I would have," Susan Dean of Griswold said.
She can breathe easier now because her son, Staff Sgt. Earl Dean Jr.,
is finally home. But she's still not ready to erase the messages yet.
Dean, an Army ranger, is back in Griswold for the first time since
Christmas 2001. He has spent three and a half years in New York, Hawaii
and Iraq.
He was a scout in the 1st through 14th Infantry Battalion "Golden
Dragons" and spent time in Tuz, Tal Afar, Najaf, Kirkuk, Divaniyah,
Samarra and Mosul in Iraq. He was in charge of a sniper team and
covered other troops during fighting.
Earl talks about his time in Iraq as if it were no big deal. But it was to his family.
"We didn't know from day to day whether he was coming back alive," his brother, Ephraim Dean, said.
His mother and his sister, Charlene Dean-Harris, said they stopped
watching the news because so many stories were about soldiers dying and
they couldn't stand to listen to it anymore.
"Everything was very negative," Charlene said.
But they don't have to worry about that now. Earl is being assigned as a trainer at a Ranger school in Georgia.
"Undeployable for four years," wife Liana Dean said with a smile.
Earl came back to the United States in February, but Tuesday was the first time he's visited his whole family in Griswold.
His wife said it was difficult not knowing where her husband was in
Iraq or when he would be coming home, especially after his deployment
was extended so he could help with the Iraqi elections.
Earl said he stopped telling his wife the speculations he heard about
when he might come home, because every time plans changed, it broke her
heart.
"When he calls from Iraq and says he's coming home, you don't believe
it until you actually see it," Liana said. "As soon as I saw him coming
down the corridor (at the airport), I cried."
Despite the violence raging in Iraq, Earl said there is a lot of
positive work going on there. He was involved in rebuilding several
schools and getting supplies for students.
"You're helping people. You're really helping a society that's always
been oppressed," Earl said. "When you give those kids school supplies
so they can learn, it gives you a good feeling."
Earl said seeing the election was also important for him.
"Actually being able to see the people come out and vote in their first free election, that was something," he said.
Earl had a few close calls, but was never wounded. He said the scariest
part of being in Iraq was the first time his battalion was ambushed
near Najaf.
"You don't really have time to think. You just react," Earl said. "Your
training kicks in. You start returning fire. Everything slows down."
Earl said there were several casualties, but the military forbids him to give details about specific operations.
Despite the battles and close calls, Earl said he would do it all again.
"You get to do your job, which was nice," Earl said. "I enjoyed it."
Liana isn't as keen as Earl about a future redeployment to Iraq, but she said she would be proud if he did.
"I don't want him to, but if he had to, I'd wait," she said.
Earl said besides simply doing his job, he learned a lot from observing the way the Iraqi people live, some of them in mud huts.
"You really learn to appreciate America and the freedoms and the values," Earl said. Originally published June 30, 2005
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