(SPRINGFIELD, GA) Effingham County welcomed home nearly 100 National Guardsmen. The Alpha Battery actually returned to Fort Stewart after a year-long deployment to Afghanistan last week, but it wasn’t until today they returned to Springfield…and their families.
There are hundreds of pictures and thousands more stories from the front lines of war, but this one begins with two brothers who chose to serve together in Afghanistan.
Holding a homemade sign with pictures of his two sons, Frank Patterson said, “My wife made this poster and this poster’s been around for a whole year.”
Signatures and warm wishes from family and friends fill the empty space around the photos and helped pass the time for Michelle Patterson. She is the mother of both SGT Frank Patterson, Jr. and CPL William Patterson. She beamed with pride as she talked about her sons, but admitted, “It is stressful worrying about them and there’s always that fear in the back of your mind that they will never come back home,” she said.
SGT Patterson returned from his second deployment safely; his first was to Iraq…and it wasn’t long until his brother followed suit, “He talked me into it while he was overseas last time,” said younger brother CPL Patterson.
CPL Patterson earned several awards while on his first deployment to Afghanistan, including Soldier of the Year. His older brother SGT Patterson said, “It was nice to have him over there…made everything a little bit easier.”
Yet the bond he had with his brother in combat couldn’t replace the bond he had at home with his son. Michelle Patterson said they kept pictures of SGT Patterson all over the house and, “he talked to him on the phone, actually he loves to talk on the phone, so we really kept them communicating the whole time.”
The nearly two-year-old son he can now play catch with couldn’t even talk when his father left for Afghanistan. A lot has changed since SGT Patterson and CLP Patterson left, but all seems right to their family now that they’re both home safely.
“It is scary to know that they could be killed. You know you might lose them, but they believed in what they were doing,” said father Frank Patterson, Sr.
Michelle Patterson added, “We’re just very thankful that God brought them back home, just so thankful that they’re home.”
Because for every father holding a sign…mother with a picture…and child waving a flag along today’s parade route, there was a soldier who put his life on the line.
