photo by Robert Stewart Keye Kinnamon presents a flag he had made in Iraq to his grandfather, Elbern Kinnamon, at an open house on Oct. 8.

by Robert Stewart

    Prior to the Malcolm home football game on Oct. 6 an announcement was made welcoming Keye Kinnamon back from serving overseas in Iraq.
     He received a standing ovation from the crowd gathered to watch Malcolm take on Weeping Water.
     Keye was at the game to spend time with his family and to watch his brother, Brecken, a senior, play football. Keye's mother, Fawn, was out in the parking lot waiting for his grandparents to arrive and missed the crowd's recognition of Keye.
     "Keye got a standing ovation and I didn't get to hear it," she said.
     Just like any proud mother, she would have liked to have heard the applause, but she knows Keye could have done without it.
     "Keye is the most humble person I've met in my life," she said.
     But, Fawn is excited and relieved to have her son home and cannot resist sharing her joy with others. She held an open house in his honor at the family's church, St. Paul's Lutheran in Malcolm, on Oct. 8.
     "It's been a stressful year and mom needed to do it," she said.
     Keye, a specialist with the 101st Airborne, an Army infantry unit, served a year in Iraq in southwestern Baghdad in an area known as the "Triangle of Death" because of its heavy population of insurgents. But now he is home safe and his time in the military is nearly over.
     "This (was) my second tour and hopefully my last," he said.
     Keye's whole family, Fawn, father, Dave, and brother, travelled down to Kentucky to meet him when he first got back in to the States.
     Julie West, who works with Fawn at Malcolm High School, said Fawn was eager to be re-united with her son.
     "Fawn was so excited and nervous about going and picking him up," she said.
     That excitement led to Fawn calling from Kentucky to ask West to help with preparations in welcoming Keye home. Although West said Fawn had everything pretty much in place for the homecoming.
     "I think she had it ready for anytime that she knew he was going to be home," West said.
     A drive through Malcolm in the week leading up to Keye's return revealed signs welcoming the soldier back to the community. Malcolm has a strong sense of pride and support for the soldiers serving overseas, especially those who hail from the area.
     Malcolm High School cheerleaders placed yellow ribbons throughout Malcolm not long after Keye was deployed.
     Allison Wiebe, a student at Westfall Elementary in Malcolm and Mallory Hellerich, a student at the junior high, both wrote letters to Keye while he was stationed in Iraq.
     For the open house, Carlene Sullivan of Malcolm made cakes and church members contributed cookies and brownies to the event.
     "It's a good place (Malcolm). There's a lot of good people that live here, a lot of great support," Keye said. "I appreciate all the support. It's just amazing."
     On Friday or Saturday, Oct. 20 or 21, Keye will travel back to Fort Campbell, Ky., where the 101st is stationed, for reintegration and to help train the troops that will be taking over for Keye and his fellow soldiers in Iraq.
     "All we're going to be doing is teaching them what we learned and get them squared away for their next deployment," he said.
     In the next couple of weeks he will be spending time with his family and friends, catching up and relaxing. The football game he attended on Oct. 6 afforded him the chance to see his brother play for the first time in two years.
     "It was a great feeling," Keye said of seeing Brecken on the field. "He played his heart out and it put a big smile on my face."
     Brecken said he enjoyed the opportunity to play with his brother in the crowd.
     "It was pretty exciting. I was kind of nervous, I didn't want to screw up anything. It was fun," he said.
     The two are close. Brecken set up a MySpace account while Keye was in Iraq just so the two could communicate.
     "Whenever he'd get back from missions he'd check it, then call me back," Brecken said.
     The two are planning to attend the same college in Colorado, along with Adam Smith, Keye's best friend who is currently serving in the Navy.
     "His brother (Brecken) will graduate in May and they're going to go out to college together," Fawn said.
     Fawn said seeing the two brothers together and the bond they have, has helped to make Keye's being home more real for her.
     "When we were in church this morning and we were walking up to communion and he (Keye) put his hand on Brecken's neck and I thought, 'He's really home,'" Fawn said.
     When asked about the recognition he has received since his return, Keye responds with the humility his mother mentioned.
     "I did something that so many people have done. Don't get me wrong I appreciate the support, but not in any way do I feel (I'm) better than any other serviceman," he said.
     Not better, but he is appreciated, for the job he did, the fact that he is home and the joy his being here brings to those who love him.
     "It's just like a weight lifted off," Fawn said.