Everett sailors head for home
Published 10:49 pm Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Ask Ryan Harrison of Everett and he’ll tell you it feels good to be back on American soil.
The U.S. Navy chief petty officer is one of four Everett-based sailors who Tuesday returned from a 61/2 month deployment to Kuwait in support of the Iraq war. The group of Navy reservists will be in Virginia for a week before returning home.
“I’m just ready to get back to life,” Harrison said. “I’m looking forward to some home-cooked meals.”
While in Kuwait, Harrison was chief of the watch for security at one of Kuwait City’s largest ports, he said. He worked 16-hour days in blinding heat.
“It was hot, dusty,” Harrison said. “I was happy to get here, where I could see rain, storms and cold weather again. That’s something I had missed.”
He’s planning a move from Everett to Bremerton, where he’ll work in the Navy’s shipyard as a civilian.
“It was great to serve my country,” he said. “I’m proud that I did it.”
Harrison was one of 240 sailors who served as cargo handlers in Kuwait and Iraq, said Lt. Penny Cockerell, a Virginia-based public affairs officer for the Navy. The sailors were mobilized for training in February and were sent overseas in May.
Chief Petty Officer Edwin Jones of Everett is ready to get back to his regular job working for the city of Bellevue.
“It wasn’t a vacation,” said Jones, a construction mechanic chief.
He said he was reunited with his wife Tuesday. Now he just wants to get home to Snohomish County.
“Getting back to the dog, getting back to work, starting life again,” he said. He also wants some “real steak and real pizza.”
Seaman Gustavo Calero of Everett spent 16-hour days cataloging trucks and other vehicles, some bearing battle scars from Iraq. Soon he’ll be back to eight-hour days processing mortgages at Wachovia Bank in Bothell.
“They’ve been very supportive through the whole deployment,” Calero said. “They keep sending me e-mails and care packages.”
But before he goes back to work he first he plans to stop to see his children, who live out of state with his former wife.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Lacey Travelstead of Everett also has children on her mind.
She’s looking forward to reuniting with Kaylla, her 6-year-old daughter, who has lived with her grandparents while she has been gone.
“I’ll be even more excited in about a week when I’m home and landing in Washington,” said Travelstead.
She said it has been particularly difficult to be separated from her daughter. “It teaches her independence,” she said.
Her daughter wants some jewelry, or so she keeps telling her mom.
“I’m taking her shopping for earrings,” Travelstead said.
She said working in Kuwait was something that she will never forget.
“It was something I never want to do again but I’m glad that I did this time,” Travelstead said.
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.
