Charlotte, N.C.
It was an unusual homecoming for soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division. Instead of marching into a room full of eager family members on Fort Bragg, loved ones stood beside cars decked out with hand-painted signs, as buses carrying weary paratroopers fresh off a no-notice deployment to the Middle East drove by.
Most of the traditional welcome-back fanfare has been replaced with a mandatory 14 day quarantine. The measure is meant to protect from the spread of COVID-19.
This is certainly not the Fort Bragg soldiers left suddenly four months ago. On New Years Eve, the division’s Immediate Response Force was activated amid rising tension with Iran. Within days, more than three thousand paratroopers were deployed to the Middle East, some having just hours to say goodbye to loved ones.
On Friday evening, Sgt. Ashley Boutte waited patiently for her husband, Sgt. Lawrence Boutte, an Apache helicopter mechanic. She didn’t expect he’d be home in time for their first wedding anniversary in a few weeks. “It’s nothing but a blessing,” she told The Associated Press.—AP
