Planners return from Iraq; another will leave for National Guard
Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008
BENTONVILLE - The city of Bentonville welcomed home two of its own and wished another good luck in his future endeavors on Friday.
For Troy Galloway and Brian Bahr, the party thrown at Compton Gardens in downtown Bentonville on Friday was a welcome home following more than a year of service in Iraq with the Arkansas Army National Guard. And for Brooke Ellis, who returned in October 2007 from a tour of duty in Kuwait, it was an opportunity to say goodbye as he leaves the city to work as a communications specialist with the Arkansas National Guard.
All three men are employed in the city of Bentonville's Planning Department. They were working their way through the community's biggest period of growth before being deployed. And, just like that, their lives changed. They were headed to the Middle East, while their families, friends and co-workers remained here.
Galloway, Bentonville's director of community development, was deployed in January 2007 and served in the 142 nd Fires Brigade. As deputy commander of the brigade, Galloway was responsible for making sure accurate information was communicated between his division and the corps. He was headquartered at one of Saddam Hussein's former compounds in the heart of Baghdad.
"I wasn't directly in harm's way a lot of the time, but there were weekly rocket attacks," Galloway said. "When I had to get out on the roads and travel between two locations was when I really thought about it most. You never knew what was going to happen then. I had butterflies out on the road when I first got there. And those butterflies never really went away."
With access to e-mail and other modern technology, Galloway was able to keep in regular contact with his wife, Brenda, and daughters Sarah and Haley. But the opportunity to put his arms around his family after more than a year in Iraq was an experience he won't soon forget.
"I stepped off the plane, and I saw my oldest daughter and she was at least 4 inches taller than she was when I left," Galloway said. "That's something you can't prepare for. I still had the picture in my head of how my girls looked when I left. I get home, and they've grown up so much. It was an incredible feeling being here with my family again."
Bahr, Bentonville's planning manager, was deployed in March 2007 and was to serve in the same division as Galloway. But that changed one month into Bahr's tour in Iraq. Leadership there learned he was a city planner by trade, and he was quickly reassigned to a reconstruction team attempting to resurrect Kirkuk.
"It was a little tough because I had trained with this group of guys and we were all in this together," Bahr said. "But then my assignment changed. I didn't really have a choice. I liked what I was doing, but it was hard to leave the guys I trained with."
For nearly a year, Bahr worked with a team to lay the groundwork for rebuilding Kirkuk. About the time he returned to the states was the time physical evidence of what he had spent his time in Iraq doing started to come out of the ground. But, like Galloway, Bahr was excited to return home and be reunited with his wife, Heidi, family and friends.
"It's great to be close to family again," Bahr said. "There's some adjustment, like getting used to the food, driving and not having an enemy lurking nearby. It's good to be home."
Ellis, a Bentonville planning technician, served as a communications specialist in Kuwait during his 1 1 / 2-year tour of duty and had a few months to get readjusted to life in Bentonville. But the experience he had in Kuwait prompted him to take a position with the Arkansas National Guard, doing communications full time. So the party at Compton Gardens on Friday was both a thank you and a goodbye for him.
"This department is back together and in good hands," Ellis said. "I'll never forget my experience in Kuwait and my time in Bentonville. But I couldn't pass up this opportunity with the (National ) Guard."
So in a way, all three men are getting readjusted. But all of them still think daily about the places they came to know so well over the past couple of years.
"The thing I think about most is how much work there is left to do over there," Galloway said. "There's still a monumental amount of work. It's such a slow road."
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