Home for the holidays 
BY DALE ELLIS2 1 Dec 2001
Managing Editor
Amid cheers, tears, and laughter, members of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry, 153rd Infantry Brigade (Gunslingers) rolled into Searcy in a 12-bus convoy flanked by a police escort. The buses left Fort Carson, Colorado Wednesday about 6 p.m., reaching the end of the 1,000 mile trip when they pulled into Searcy's Wal-Mart Supercenter at 3:15 p.m. Thursday.
"That's two, there's three, there's four. That's them, they're here, they're home!" shouted one excited group when they spotted the convoy coming down the exit toward the Supercenter parking lot.
The buses made their way into the parking lot, and the soldiers lined up in formation as they were addressed by their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Steve Womack, and by Major General Don C. Morrow, the adjutant general of Arkansas.
"You've done a great job in your training," Morrow told the 550 Gunslingers as they stood at attention. "I couldn't be more proud of you."
With instructions to find their families and move back to the buses for the trip to Sam's Distribution Center, the soldiers were given the order to fall out and the crowd of families and friends surged forward and merged with the Gunslingers as family members searched one another out.
The trip home was provided by Wal-Mart and USA Coach after the military released information that it would be unable due to federal regulations to ship all the men home for the holidays. Wal-Mart also provided parking at the distribution center and shuttle buses in order to keep congestion down at the Supercenter.
Prior to the convoy's arrival, families were kept updated on the soldiers' progress as they drove through the state on their way to Searcy. A police escort joined them in Conway to bring them home.
Womack said as the buses entered Arkansas, they began to encounter groups of people standing on overpasses and by the highway waving flags, watching the troops pass by.
"We've had police escorts, flags waving, it's been great," he said. "It's good to be home."
"Oh, gosh, we're so excited," said Donna Hammett of Bald Knob as her son Ryan joined her, his father, and Ryan's wife, Nicole. Ryan and Nicole were married just before the unit departed for Fort Carson in October.
"We're going to have the whole family together for Christmas," said Donna. "This is great."
The Hammetts have another son in the National Guard also, Ryan's older brother Anthony, who is a Captain in the Paragould unit.
"Anthony joined in "92 and Ryan has always said he wanted to be in the National Guard like his brother," she said. "As soon as he was old enough, he joined."
"Man, this is great," said Ryan. "I can breathe." He said the elevation at Fort Carson made it difficult to get acclimated and exercise was tough for a while until he grew accustomed to the difference. He and Nicole have planned a trip to Canada for the holidays and will return just before he heads back to Fort Carson.
Also waiting for Ryan with his wife, his mother and his brother were his father, Bill Hammett, and his sister, Lori Jones.
Diane McDoniel of Newark made the trip to Searcy to meet her son, Spc. Kevin McDoniel, along with his nephews, eight-month-old Ryan and three-year-old Colby.
"I'm tickled pink that Wal-Mart is helping them come home," she said. When she learned that the military would not be sending the unit home for the holidays, she said she began making telephone calls to the governor, legislators, and anyone else who would listen to try and get them home.
"I figured if we all got together we could do something," she said.
The Gunslingers will be home until January 1, when they will return to Fort Carson for deployment to Egypt, which will happen in mid-January. The soldiers will be part of a multinational peacekeeping force in the Sinai region. They are supposed to return from Egypt sometime in July.