‘It’s good to be home:’ A soldier returns from Afghanistan
July 20, 2011
Andrew Chung: Article first appeared in the Toronto Star 21 July 2011
Chuck Oliviero captures his wife Jane with their son Morgan at the Quebec City airport. Morgan arrived home from Afghanistan on Wednesday.
STEVE RUSSELL/TORONTO STAR
QUEBEC CITY—One by one the soldiers, their faces tanned by the Afghan sun, emerged through the security doors, handsome in their olive-green berets and their sandy-hued fatigues.
Any minute now. 10982 Chuck and Jane Oliviero stood on the seats in the arrivals area, craning their necks to see above the welcome banners and colourful balloons.
What’s a few minutes? After three hours at the airport. After a sleepless night driving to get here. More importantly, after eight long months of worry while their youngest son was in Afghanistan.
Then, finally, there was 24078 Morgan. Captain Morgan. The only one wearing the oversized rucksack on his back. As if he was ready to turn around and go again.
“Oh, he looks good,” Jane said, her brows relaxing in relief.
Then, she put her fingers in her mouth and let out a wolf whistle that drowned out even the military homecoming band.
This is pride writ large.
It’s a return made all the more poignant by the fact that Morgan is among the last to return as Canada’s combat mission comes to an end.
It was a bloody one. A total of 157 soldiers died during the mission, as did four civilians.
For the Oliviero family, all of that culminated Wednesday morning when Morgan walked through those doors.
“I love you. And I am so proud of you,” Jane whispered to her son as they hugged in a quiet corner.
Chuck, a retired army colonel who grew up in Toronto’s Little Italy, who Morgan so much resembles, kissed his son on the neck and asked simply, “How do you feel?”
“It’s good to be home,” Morgan replied.
And what does a soldier want to do first, his feet firmly on the soil of the homeland? “I’d like to take a shower and put some normal clothes on,” he said with a big grin.
He also made known his plans to hit the bars in Old Quebec because, he announced, “Today is my birthday!”
Morgan, newly 25, would freshen up. And there would be mundane tasks to take care of. Getting a new cellphone. Renewing his licence.
Then he’d head to the specific cigar bar where everybody really does know his name. “I’m so happy to see you!” the barmaid would tell him, offering shots of Cointreau and crème de menthe.
Morgan was seemingly waiting his whole life for his Afghan moment. Grandfather on his mom’s side was a soldier. As was his dad. His older brother Quentin is in the air force.
When he was just 3 he refused to get out of his father’s tank.
On Sept. 11, 2001, he formulated a view that becoming a soldier was noble.
“There have to be people who stand between a good and functioning society,” he declared, “and the barbarians who want to tear it down.”
On his first and only tour of Afghanistan, in the dangerous Panjwaii district, his job was reconnaissance. And they engaged in firefights with Taliban insurgents “once or twice a month.”
For Jane, some of these details she’d prefer not to know.
“The woman side of me was very proud,” Jane said. “But the mom side was screaming.”
It was difficult for Chuck, too, because several of his army buddies lost sons in Afghanistan.
“You console yourself with the fact that he’s doing what he always wanted to do,” Chuck reasoned.
As the Cuban cigars came out Wednesday evening, Morgan was settling into being home. Grateful his parents were there. “You don’t feel like you’re back,” he said, “until somebody shows you they were waiting.”
There was surely a toast to that. More great photo here
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Canadian soldiers return home after tour
“This marks another chapter in Canada’s contribution in Afghanistan and again, we feel good. We feel proud of the accomplishments,” Milner told reporters.
“We definitely flattened the insurgency. Afghanistan still has its challenges, but we feel that there is significant improvement in the fight against the insurgents.”
14596 Brig.-Gen. Dean Milner Read the entire article
“Our goal was to set up the Americans for success and we feel very good about what we were able to accomplish,”
14596 Brig.-Gen. Dean Milner Read the entire article
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TOUR de ROCK: Touched by cancer
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19976 Stephanie McFarlane nee Low, RMC grad 1995 Read the article
Stephanie McFarlane nee Low donation page: www.copsforcancerbc.ca/tourderock/stephaniemcfarlane
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