300 troops make it home

By COURTNEY LAMDIN | Staff Writer
mireporter@mac.com
With additional reporting by JACKIE CAIN

For Lorrene Palermo of Georgia, Thursday, Dec. 16 was a special day.

For one, it marked the day her husband, Thomas, would return from a nine-month tour in Afghanistan with the Vermont National Guard. For two, it was the anniversary of the day he came home from Kuwait in 2005.

For Palermo, it means closure.

“It’s done,” she said excitedly at the ‘Welcome Home’ ceremony at the Air Aviation Support Facility in South Burlington before her husband arrived. “We’re ready. We’re ready to pick up where we left off.”

Palermo’s husband was one of about 300 soldiers to return home that day to a cheering crowd full of homemade signs and anxious families. All of the 1,500 soldiers deployed will be home by Christmas.

Palermo attended the event with her daughter, Veronica, parents-in-law and best friend.

Since last November, she kept up an artificial Christmas tree, decorating it to mark the passage of each month. It came down in October, and the family is ready to get a real tree for this holiday, she said.

This is what her husband is most looking forward to now that he’s home, he said.

“It’s a moment of overjoy, happy to be home,” Thomas Palermo said. “It’s been a long nine months. Just very glad to be home for the holiday season with all the other soldiers and their families.”

Courtney Burnelle of Milton was very emotional waiting for her soldier, Michael Burnelle, to return from his first deployment, she said. “I’m so happy I could cry,”

she said. “It will be so nice to have life back in order again.”

Jean Bessette of Milton said that even though her husband, Trevor Bessette, was on his third deployment, it wasn’t easy to have him gone this year.

Right after the sendoff, Bessette was accepted to nursing school. Her final exam was the day after he came home, making studying a little more difficult than usual, she said.

Shawn Lane of Milton got a warm reception from his parents, Holly and Ken, and brother, Kris. The family was anxious for Lane to deplane and to conduct their first order of business: taking Lane out to dinner.

“His choice,” Holly Lane said.

Across the room, Aubrey McKenna, 9, was about to get the only item on her Christmas list: her brother, David Ritchie, home from his service.

She toted a sign with fluorescent letters: “Welcome Home, PFC Ritchie,” it read.

Ritchie’s wife, Mary, was a little worried about how their two young children would adjust but was happy to have Ritchie home for the holidays. Here, her mother-in-law piped up saying that this was “all that matters right now.”

Milton resident Lisa Mattos said it was a tough year waiting for her boyfriend, TJ Fortier, to return home. She mostly spent it training for marathons.

“It’s all I do to pass the time,” she said.

Fortier’s family welcomed him with a custom-made banner. His son, Collin, wore an identical uniform to his and carried a cloth American flag.

Asked what he’s looking forward to now that he’s home, Fortier said, “Relaxing.”

Doris, Joanna and Troy Sumner of Milton were at the hangar to welcome home husband and father Phil from his second deployment. The family watched Christmas movies that weekend, and the couple walked their dog, Doris Sumner wrote in a follow-up email.

“It’s something we both anchor our days with,” she wrote. “Having him back this morning to walk the dogs in the cold, dark air was extremely bright.”

At the hangar, Phil Sumner also commented on the fresh Vermont air.

“[The Afghans] burn trash and they burn tires, so there’s always a constant smog in the air,” he said. “It’s nice to see clear air where you can actually see for miles.”