Stripes: 1st AD kids cope with extensions

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...signs made by anxious students at Bad Nauheim and Butzbach elementary schools in Germany, won’t be going up anytime soon.

The posters were one way children of 1st Armored Division soldiers in the Friedberg community had been preparing for their parents’ homecoming, many of whom were due back in May.

Summer vacations had been planned and many families were simply looking forward to being whole again, said Tawnya Moreno, a 1st AD spouse who works in the Butzbach Elementary School office.

But with the recent announcement of an extension of up to 120 days in Iraq for the 1st AD, those plans have been put on hold.

“We had to rip all down at 7 a.m. Monday morning,” said Stephen Markway, Butzbach’s guidance counselor. “We had a field day planned with dads and an open house planned for dads and families.”

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While troops downrange may be experiencing burnout, spouses on the homefront are suffering a similar kind of exhaustion, which can be impossible to ignore.

“To be quite honest with you … it honestly felt like someone punched me in the gut,” said Moreno, when she heard that her husband, Staff Sgt. Mario Moreno, would be extended.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=21696