Warrior’s Return is a Christmas Surprise

Sara, Melissa, Brendan, and Brian Hanley reunite. Michael Brendan Dougherty The Hanley family received an unexpected Christmas present this year: the early return of their son, Brian Hanley, from Iraq. “We were all blown away by this great Christmas gift,” said Art Hanley, Brian’s father.

Brian Hanley, a 1997 graduate of Brewster High School, was on his second tour in Iraq. In 2003 he served in the initial force that invaded Iraq from Kuwait. In February of 2009 he returned to serve as a Brigade Logistics Trainer, working with a transition team to equip and train the Iraqi army.

Hanley was scheduled to arrive in the United States in February, but learned three weeks ago that his team would be returning to Fort Riley just before Christmas. “Our flight kept getting pushed back, little by little,” said Hanley, “but once I knew I was coming home, I told my wife, Melissa, and no one else. We wanted it to be a surprise.” Hanley was planning to surprise not just his parents and in-laws, but his two children, Brendan, 3, and Sara, 1.

After processing at Fort Riley, one of Hanley’s team members drove him to Maryland, where Hanley’s wife, Melissa, picked him up at 7:30am Christmas Eve. “My son and daughter looked at me like ‘Hey, its dad’, and then the shock came: ‘What’s Dad doing here?’ It was great.”

But the planned surprises didn’t all go so smoothly. When Hanley arrived at his in-laws’ home in Pennsylvania, he schemed to give his own parents in Brewster a phone call. “I called my parents, Christmas morning,” said Hanley. “I tried using a calling card to disguise my location, but it showed up as coming from Pennsylvania. They were surprised, but I didn’t get the shock I was looking for.”

Hanley has had time to reflect on his service. “This was one of my best years in the Army,” Hanley said. “It was a rewarding experience. We had a great team, and good team chemistry, but of course I’m glad to be back in the world.”

Hanley had been working in a rural part of Iraq along its eastern border with Iran. His second tour was more congenial than the first. “We had better quarters, one man to a room. It was a station that training teams before us had used. We had Internet, so I could communicate with my family more than I could during the invasion,” Hanley reported.

“It was like any other job where you work with people all day; there were some you liked and some you’d sooner forget.” Hanley said, “but I’m proud of the progress we made, and hope they continue it.”

Hanley said his position in the Army was difficult to explain to outsiders and to others in the Army. “You say you are with the Transition Team and people don’t know what you did, they just know you don’t have the support of a regular unit and they try to help out.”

“When we first arrived, the Iraqi people were happy we were there. Now, they understand why we are there, but they look at us like ‘Hey, your tank is in the way of my truck,’” Hanley said.

The Christmas break is a welcome change of routine for Hanley, but he has already received his next orders, which include more training in Virginia and an assignment with SETA, the Southern European Task Force, stationed in Vicenza, Italy.

“I’ll be bringing my family there, and we’re looking forward to seeing Europe,” said Hanley. “Also, it’s a command assignment where I’ll have weekends, so I’m happy about that too. But for now it’s a mad dash trying to get our things over to Italy.”

In a message to Brian’s friends and well-wishers on Facebook, Art Hanley wrote, “Thanks to all for your prayers and support. Remember that while Brian and his team are home, there are thousands of members of our Armed Forces that are in harm’s way. Please keep them in your prayers and offer support to those who wait here at home for their safe return.”