He's back from Iraq; welcome home, sarge!

A local VFW post welcomes an Army sergeant home from Iraq and makes him a post member.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
SHARPSVILLE, Pa. -- Army Sgt. Jeff Achenbach, who has just returned from 14 months of service in Iraq, hopes he can get to know his 18-month-old son a little better.
"He changed a lot. When I left, he was an infant. When I came back, he was walking around the house, getting into stuff," Achenbach said of his son, Pierce, an only child who was born Dec. 10, 2002.
Having already served six months in Afghanistan, he was home for Pierce's birth but left for Iraq when Pierce was only 4 months old. Achenbach is an aviation operations specialist with a unit that dispatches helicopters to pick up wounded soldiers.
Achenbach, 24, who returned home almost a month ago, lives with his wife, Lauren, and their son at Fort Bragg, N.C., where his unit, the 57th Medevac Co., is based. His parents, Ron and Toni Achenbach, formerly of Sharon, reside in Warren, Ohio.
Big celebration
A 1997 graduate of Brookfield High School, Achenbach was welcomed home in a Friday afternoon celebration at Sharpsville VFW Post 6404, which he joined earlier in the day. Several dozen people gathered to greet Achenbach, his wife and son in a ceremony complete with a welcoming banner and cake and red, white and blue balloons and tablecloths.
When Achenbach left for Iraq, Pierce wasn't walking or talking. Now, he's doing both. "He's a big boy," Achenbach said of his son, who he said is taller and heavier than 90 percent of boys his age.
"He warmed up to me very quickly," he said of Pierce's reaction when he returned from Iraq. "Not that I wanted to be away, but I would rather be away at that time when he doesn't have a concept of time," Achenbach said. If Pierce had been older, had a concept of time, and known where his father was going, the separation would have been more difficult, he observed.
Discharge date
Having spent 20 of the past 26 months overseas, he is scheduled to leave the Army in February 2005. But if his unit is redeployed, he said, his service time likely would be extended for one year. After he leaves the service, he plans to earn a college degree in elementary and early childhood education.
Achenbach was able to see images of his son when he and his wife exchanged videotapes and still photos by mail, and he and his wife communicated by telephone and e-mail as often as they could while he was away. His wife has also maintained photo albums showing Pierce and a scrapbook of newspaper clippings on Achenbach's military service.
"We're proud of him for serving his country," said Edward Volansky, of South Pymatuning, a trustee and past commander of the VFW post.