The 737th is coming home

[darrels joy]

The 737th is coming home
By ADRIANA JANOVICH
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC


They're on their way home.

After 14 months of active duty that included missions in Iraq, the citizen soldiers of the Army Reserve 737th Transportation Company are scheduled to return home sometime next Saturday.

"Everybody's just standing ready; there's tons of anxiousness," said 36-year-old Kimberly Schoolcraft of Yakima, Family Readiness Group leader for the 737th. "We're just waiting for the word."

Soldiers are expected to arrive at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, then head to Fort Lewis, where family and friends will be waiting to welcome them.

Schoolcraft and her husband, Staff Sgt. Myles Schoolcraft, plan to be there.

"Those are my soldiers, our soldiers," said Myles Schoolcraft, a Yakima County corrections officer who has put in 20 years with the Army. He's been home in Yakima since last fall after leaving the 737th ? where he headed a squad of 12 ? in October for medical reasons.

"I want my unit to be back here. I want everybody to come back safe."

While several soldiers in the 737th have been injured during the deployment, no one in the unit has been killed .

Activated in December 2003, the approximately 150 men and women in the 737th spent the early months of their deployment in Kuwait. Since last May, they've been in Iraq. The bulk of their missions have been hauling fuel.

According to Pam Garrison, a public information officer with the 70th Regional Readiness Command, most of the 737th has likely already left Iraq.

"Usually, the process is they take them to Kuwait and make them wait until a place becomes available," she said. "They're probably sitting around someplace, waiting to be put on a plane."

Meanwhile, the members of the old 737th, which served in Vietnam, are planning to put up welcome banners at the Yakima Training Center and in downtown Yakima, and present members of the current 737th with a commemorative coin. The coin recognizes their tour of duty in Iraq and the former unit's deployment in Vietnam.

They're hoping the community will turn out to greet the soldiers when they roll into town, after about a week of administrative obligations at Fort Lewis.

"We want as many people as possible to give them a big welcome," said Bill Timmermans, a former truck driver with the 737th who served in Vietnam. "We want schoolchildren with flags and banners that they made themselves."

The date and time of the welcome rally will be announced later. But when the time comes, "We want as many people as possible to line the streets when the soldiers come home," Timmermans said. "We want as much fanfare as possible to make a big impression on them."

Several other local units are currently serving in Iraq:

* The 907th Engineer Detachment of Yakima.

* The 116th Support Center of Ellensburg, part of the Washington Army National Guard's 96th Brigade.

* The 181st Support Battalion's Bravo Company of Yakima, also part of the National Guard.

* In addition, a Yakima Marine Reserve unit, Bravo Company 4th Tank Battalion, is on its way to Iraq after reporting for active duty in early January.