Coming Home is a series of articles focused on the lives of Seward County soldiers returning home after serving overseas. The first installments will deal with soldiers who have been back for one year and their re-adjustment to civilian life.

by Robert Stewart

    Establishing a life and a livelihood can be incredibly difficult in the best of situations. Trying to sort things out and set a path while serving your country can prove a herculean task.
     He thought that everything was mapped out. Sgt. Adam Greene of Seward was planning to attend WyoTech, a school for auto mechanics in Laramie, Wyo., but then he got deployed to Iraq.
     Greene spent a year in Tikrit, Iraq, with the 267th organizational maintenance unit, making sure machinery and equipment for the army was running smoothly. Tikrit is located about three to four hours north of Baghdad and the same distance south and east of Karkuk and south of Mosul.
     "We were kind of in the middle of it all," he said.
     He was 20 years old when he shipped out.
     "I spent my 21st birthday in Iraq watching the Sopranos on DVD," Greene said.
     Greene joined the Army National Guard almost five years ago.
     "A few of my friends were joining and I thought, 'Why not? It would be a good way to pay for college,'" he said.
     He is now nearly 23, his birthday is in May, and he has been back in the U.S. full-time for a little more than a year.
     Greene said his first experience coming home (during a two-week leave six months into his deployment) was a mixture of wanting to relax and wanting to do as many things and catch up with as many people as possible.
     "You kind of want to make up for a little bit of lost time," he said. "But it was a nice break from getting up at seven every morning and you kind of want to spend a little of the money that you saved."
     After his leave ended Greene returned to his unit in Iraq, a group that he came to know well in the time he spent with them.
     "I knew the 170 people in my unit by their first name, their last name and what their family does," he said.
     One of the highlights of his service overseas was spending a Christmas with three units of the guard from Nebraska. In addition to the 267th, the 1075th transportation and the 313th medical were stationed in Tikrit.
     He had a hand in building a two-story "morale building" that featured a weight room and a TV room, and the groups spent time getting to know each other over the holidays.
     "Over Christmas was really cool," he said. "It was nice to see some friends at the guard and some new faces. That was probably the highlight of everyone's year, was Christmas."
     As the completion of their deployment approached, Greene said many in the group were looking forward to getting back to the U.S.
     "Towards the end everybody's ready to just go home," he said. "It's kind of like, 'Leave me alone.'"
     Members of the 267th were not immune to the eagerness to get back, according to Greene but he has remained in touch with many of them since returning.
     "Some of them were flaring a little bit," he said. "But we all seemed to get through it all right."
     Greene returned to the States on Feb. 14, 2005.
     "We came back on Valentine's Day. That was kind of cool. We couldn't see anybody, but we were home. That's all that mattered," he said.
     The time immediately after returning was spent in preparing to re-enter civilian life, Greene said.
     "To teach us how to ease back into it all," he said.
     He said he spent nearly 12 hours a day for five days taking classes on how to deal with the reactions of the people he might meet, strangers, friends and family, and how to deal with the mental transition to civilian life. How to deal with a family that might try to smother you with attention, or one that might push you away.
     He said at the time he was eager to get back to his life, but in retrospect the classes helped him to adjust.
     "I realized about six or seven months later, I tended to push away a little bit from some people, which wasn't right on my behalf," he said. "I felt a little more independent."
     That independence was somewhat in conflict with how Greene said he felt after he got back.
     "I thought I knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life," he said. "But then you get back and you want to stay at home."
     Greene was able to act on his need for independence by using some of the money he had saved while serving in Iraq to ease back into civilian life.
     "I had a little money saved so I didn't have to work for a few months," he said. "Most people saved as much as they could. I know I did."
     Greene moved into a house in Lincoln with some friends and took some general studies classes at Southeast Community College, but he was not settled down.
     "I've been going to college on and off for four years now," he said. "I just keep going on and off, taking classes here and there."
     He tried to find a job so he was not only living off his savings and was successful at finding work at a restaurant, a lumberyard and some temporary work for the National Guard, but he also met some disappointment.
     He moved to Colorado for a month pursuing more work with the Guard, but the job that was supposedly set up fell through.
     "You get sick of being tossed around," Greene said. "People promised one thing and didn't come through."
     Greene had good things to say about the Nebraska Guard and the help he has gotten from them since returning.
     "They try to help everybody at least for a few months to get back on their feet," he said. "That's one thing I like about the Nebraska Guard, everybody will really help you out, especially if you know people."
     He frequently checks www.neguard.com, looking for openings with the Guard.
     He said working for the Guard fits in well with what he wants to do right now, but he does not think it is something he wants to do forever.
     "It's pretty good. It's pretty laid back. I can at least take one night class a semester and be able to afford everything," he said. "I'll probably stay in the Guard for 15 years, but it's not something I'll do for the rest of my life."
     Greene is currently working for a company in Lincoln, unloading trucks, but he hopes to find employment with the Guard in Ashland as a production controller, responsible for maintaining communication between automotive shops, sending equipment where it is needed and ensuring that the shop he tends is fully stocked with parts and tools.
     Greene said that, for him, the Guard has provided many opportunities and he sees much of the upheaval he has faced as a natural part of becoming an adult and figuring out what he wants to do with his life.
     "The job experience is well worth it and the people that you meet," he said. "It's an experience I think everyone should have. You grow up a lot in just one year, no matter what age you are."