Specialist Elija Carroll (left) greets one of his fellow scouts, Saturday, April 29, 2006, during an early morning welcome home ceremony for Griffin’s Troop E, 108th Cavalry at Fort Stewart near Savannah. Carroll returned home early in the unit’s deployment to Iraq because of wounds received when the Humvee he was driving was hit by an improvised explosive device or IED. (Georgia National Guard photo by Pfc. Amanda Luksic)

For Wounded GI, Welcome Home Ceremony 'A Bit Funny'

Georgia National Guard
Public Affairs Office

FORT STEWART Saturday, April 29, 2006 – Georgia Army National Guard Spec. Elijah Carroll felt a bit funny sitting among the families and friends of his fellow Soldiers instead of returning with them, he said, from Iraq.

“I mean, here I am wearing civilian clothes and watching from the side lines as they stand before us looking proud and standing tall,” the scout from Griffin’s Troop E, 108th Cavalry, said. “Being on this bench isn’t where I want to be.

“I want to be out there, with them,” he said with a somewhat solemn look on his face. His facial expression changed, however, the minute the coordinator in charge of Troop E’s welcome home ceremony at Fort Stewart’s Cottrell Parade Field gave the crowd of more than 100 families and friends the go ahead to greet the return unit.

Carroll was in the grandstands on that dark, chilly morning of April 29, 2006, because of wounds he received early in the 108th’s yearlong deployment to Iraq. As part of Georgia’s 48th Brigade Combat Team, the unit was working out of Forward Operating Base St. Michael near the city of Mahmud about 25 kilometers south of Baghdad.

During an Oct. 20, 2005, patrol of the city, the Hume Carroll was driving was hit by an improvised explosive device or IED. He received wounds to his left leg and the left side of his face. His gunner lost his left eye in the attack.

Today, his facial injuries are healing and he walks with a cane as he continues his recovery. But nothing, absolutely nothing would keep him from being here and welcoming his comrades home.

“It wouldn’t have mattered if I’d had to crawl,” the proud, defiant young cavalry scout said, while watching his unit form up behind the barrier of trees that line the back of Cottrell Parade Field.

“We’ve kept in contact since I left, but it’s not the same as being there.

“These guys are, and always will be ‘family,’” he said. “I’ve missed them, and it’s great to see them again.”

Carroll isn’t the only wounded member of 108th Cave to welcome the unit back. Also there was Spec. Charles Mays, one of Troop E’s master gunners.

Also wounded by an insurgent attack early in the troop’s deployment, Mays, who gets around by wheelchair was as happy as anyone to see his fellow scouts. His happiness changed to humbleness when they honored him with the traditional cavalry Stetson and spurs, usually earned by Cave Soldiers in a test of their skills as a scout.

One Soldier said Mays had earned his the hard way, in combat.

“All I did was my job, what I’d been trained to do,” Mays said as a fellow scout placed the dark blue Stetson on his head, while another attached the spurs to his heels.  “I’m really honored at this, and having these guys back just makes it an even greater honor for me.”

Mays, it seems, echoes the sentiments of those who heralded Troop E’s return. Families, friends and fellow Soldiers, those who deployed and those who stayed behind, said they were honored to know, and have home some of the best Soldiers anywhere.     

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