The world is a different place than when we left

Photo By Mark Olsen | A family member displays her sign for the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, New Jersey Army National Guard, welcome home ceremony at the Joint Military and Family Assistance Center, Bordentown, N.J., April 4, 2020. Due to the Coronavirus, the traditional welcome home ceremony was changed to enable proper social distancing. Once the Soldiers were released by their commander, they met their families in their cars outside the armory. Prior to their return, the Soldiers were quarantined for two weeks at Fort Bliss, Texas. The 44th Soldiers were deployed to Camp Bondsteel, Republic of Kosovo, as part of KFOR 26, the Kosovo peacekeeping mission. (New Jersey National Guard photo by Mark C. Olsen)  

BORDENTOWN, NJ, UNITED STATES

04.08.2020

Story by Mark Olsen  

New Jersey National Guard   

When the New Jersey Army National Guard Soldiers assembled on the drill floor April 4, 2020, unlike past welcome home ceremonies, there was no one there to meet them.
Instead their families were waiting inside their cars in the parking lot behind the Joint Military and Family Assistance Center in Bordentown, New Jersey.
This is the age of Coronavirus and welcome home ceremonies are no exception to the social distancing rules New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has implemented throughout the state.
“It’s a lot different than we imagined it would be; this is nowhere near what we thought it would be,” said Col. Robert W. Hughes Jr., Commander, 44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT). “The world is a different place than when we left.”
Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 44th IBCT, had just returned from a nearly year-long deployment in the Republic of Kosovo as part of the Kosovo Force (KFOR) peacekeeping mission.
KFOR is NATO’s longest-running peacekeeping mission, with more than 28 allied and partner nations ensuring safety, peace, and security in the Kosovo region. The KFOR mission began June 10, 1999, and derives its mandate from the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 and international agreements. Currently approximately 4,000 troops provided by 28 countries help ensure that KFOR’s objectives are met.
“We worked with our international partners, we built bridges, we built relationships,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Scott Mechkowski, 44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. “You knocked it out of the park.”
Prior to their return to New Jersey, the more than 120 Soldiers spent 14 days in quarantine at Fort Bliss, Texas.
As chaplain Maj. Shawn Found said on Facebook at the end of the 14 days: “After two precautionary weeks, the Jersey Blues (the 44th’s nickname) are asymptomatic and ‘sans Corona.’”
On the Bordentown drill floor, Mechkowski offered this advice to the Soldiers.
“We just came out of quarantine; remember this: We know you’re good right now, you don’t know where everybody else has been, so use caution.”
Hughes reinforced that message.
“Ease back into it, you can’t make up for the lost year and all that lost fun in a day or two. As the sergeant major said, you’ve earned the right to relax. In due time, you will get your opportunity to celebrate as a group.”
And with that, the Soldiers were dismissed.
When the armory’s loading dock door was opened to the parking lot, the Soldiers were met with a crescendo of car horns honking.
This was their welcome home.

• Date Taken: 04.08.2020
• Date Posted: 04.08.2020 16:31
• Story ID: 366908
• Location: BORDENTOWN, NJ, US