Bloomfield family has a happy Thanksgiving

Shane Padgett, pictured in Iraq, is now back home in Bloomfield. [Order this photo]

There is plenty of reason to celebrate in the household of Sgt. Shane Padgett.

He's pleased to be re-united with his family after a nine-month tour of duty in Iraq with the Indiana National Guard.

Sgt. Padgett, assigned to the 76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Company A of the Special Troops Battalion (STB), based in Winchester, returned home in October as part of an advance team.

On Thursday, he sat down with his wife, Jennifer and other family members and enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving meal at his mother-in-law's house.

He's been through demobilization at Camp Atterbury and is slowly getting back in the swing of things as a husband and a dad.

The 38-year-old father of six children has enrolled at Indiana University in Bloomington and is already started working on attaining his master's degree in elementary education.

He hopes to be a school teacher in about 18 months -- thanks in large part of the educational benefits he has earned as a member of the National Guard.

Sgt. Padgett was formerly assigned to Combat Team Alpha 1-151 Team Avenger -- based in Linton -- for two years, but he took a transfer to the Winchester unit in order to get a rank promotion.

"This (the Linton unit) is a good group of guys who train hard. I wanted to go to Iraq with these guys, but I couldn't pass up the promotion," Padgett explained. "It was more money and was really a good step for me ... I just felt like I wanted to go.

"I'd go again," he quickly said. "The reception of the people over there toward us (the U.S. troops) was great. I had a chance to speak with a lot of them. We dealt with a lot of interpreters and a lot of them said before they took Sadaam Hussein out they had no liberties. None."

Sgt. Padgett said he believes in the mission.

"We are really doing a good thing over there ... the political spin is the farthest thing from your mind. We're there for a good reason, there is no doubt. Those people just want what we got. These people live in mud huts and they have no shoes. It's hard to believe," the Guard veteran said. "We're wanted over there. It's a good thing because we are making people's lives better, no matter what anybody says. The problem is the five or 10 percent that don't want us there, want to kill us. The other 90 percent want us there."

Padgett said his recent "war experience" changed him and made an impression on him.

"I had a Play Station 2 and I gave it to one of the interpreters to give to his son. His kid was 14 and he used to come in to work with his dad. He could speak very little English, but this kid was so grateful to be around us it was incredible. When I gave him this Play Station 2, I thought this guy was going to cry. It was heartwarming," Padgett said. "I could have brought it home and my kids could have used it. It was a good feeling to just see this guy was so thankful. It wasn't planned."

The Linton unit was scheduled to return to Indiana today and Padgett advised them to enjoy the reunion with their families. Then he said for each to take some time to get back into a family routine because life on the state-side is different.

"Things aren't the same as when I left," he said. "I'm just now beginning to feel comfortable here again ... I would tell them to sit back and relax. The hardest thing I've had to deal with is Jennifer (his wife) took care of everything since I left. Before, I took care of everything. It's tough now. It's very stressful. There are days that I'm just lazy. I don't know if I'm depressed or what. I'm still trying to feel my way back in. I have never gone through that before. It's a different adjustment and I never thought it would be."

The latest deployment was his second.

He was first deployed as part of the Desert Storm operation as a regular Army member and spent time in Germany and the Middle East between 1988 and 1991.

After his was discharged, he got away from the military life for a couple years and went to college -- earning an undergraduate degree in Religious studies from the University of Miami (Florida).

He joined the National Guard for a few years and then took a break.

Most recently, Padgett re-enlisted with the Linton Guard unit in 2005 -- his second enlistment with the National Guard.

"I missed it really. I really missed being out. I was out four years and I wanted to get back in," he said. "This last time, I was out two years and I got back in knowing that I was probably going to end up going to Iraq."

Pagdett said his decision to get back into the Guard was for personal and professional reasons.

He was driving an ice and a trash truck before he left.

"I didn't feel like I was going anywhere in life," Padgett said. "I got back into it and have really enjoyed it. It has been really incredible for me ... personally and professionally it was a challenge. But I am glad I met it. I'm glad I was put in that spot.

"Being older now with kids and married to Jennifer, it was a challenge to go, but it was something I was able to do."

Padgett, a native of Jasonville, departed in early December, went to Fort Steward, Ga., to mobilization training and then it was off to Iraq as one of the oldest Guardsmen in the entire brigade.

He describes himself as an old guy in a young guy's Army.

"To many of the guys in my unit, I really could have been their dad," he said with a big smile. "I'm glad I had young guys in my unit because they were all gung-ho. I had to pull the reins every now and then and say 'hold on you are not indispensable here' ... I would tell them I'm not going to be the first guy there and I'm not going to be the last guy there. But I'm going to get there. One of my main things over there was taking care of those guys. They were so young. It was kind of stressful from that point because I knew basically I had some high school kids to take care of."

His unit was involved in policing operations in northern Iraq in the Q-West region; conducted entry control point duties; and he was a member of a "base reactionary force." He was also involved in the search for insurgents throughout the area and assisted in a variety of humanitarian missions.

The Guardsman said things are "better" on the ground in Iraq since the surge, but still a very dangerous place.

One of his unit's interpreters had his home "blown up" by insurgents.

Sgt. Padgett, who grew up in Jasonville, but graduated from the old Worthington-Jefferson High School, pointed out the Guard has been good for him.

"I wasn't much of student in school. I passed up a junior college baseball scholarship. My family didn't have a lot of money so the military was kind of my way out. When I was younger, I wanted out of Greene County," he said.

The reception from Padgett's neighbors and others around the county has been flattering to him since his return.

"It's important to be home. The reception I've got since I got home has been excellent. It just makes you feel real good when you come home and you know the public is not into the war, but yet they don't treat the soldiers bad," he stressed. "To be home with family is just that much more special. In Iraq we were a family. The whole unit was a family and really close over there, but there's nothing like being home with your wife and your kids -- the true ones that really love you."