After year in Army, junior welcomed back home from Mideast
It was 6 p.m. Feb. 8, 2003, when Allen Leggett received "the phone call" after returning home from his Japanese class.
Sgt. Allen Leggett, an East Asian studies junior, had less than 24 hours to say goodbye to his parents and friends, e-mail his professors, pack and report to the headquarters of the Army Reserve, 257th Transportation Company.
Two days later, he was on his way to Kuwait to prepare for the Iraq war.
"As soon as I got off the phone with my parents, I immediately got on the Internet and started e-mailing my professors because I didn't have enough time to go to class and do it formally. I had to leave the next day," Allen said.
It was a little more than a month before Operation Iraqi Freedom would begin.
"Bush wasn't going to back down after pulling these students out of school," said Gail Leggett, Allen's mother.
Allen returned home yesterday with his unit from the Middle East to big hugs from his parents, 13 months after leaving them behind. A representative from the governor's office, state representatives and more than 200 family members and friends clad in red, white and blue met the 257th unit.
"My favorite moment (of my deployment) is right now," Allen said after embracing his parents.
The family corresponded over e-mail and general mail, only getting to speak on the phone two times.
Allen sent home CDs full of pictures he took while in Kuwait and Iraq. In many of his pictures, he attempted to document the landscape and culture he witnessed as a soldier.
In his pictures, he caught sunsets behind palm trees, caravans of camels and candids of his comrades. The pictures that touched his mom most were of children playing soccer on dirt roads.
"He was able to find the beauty of where he was," Gail said.
Officially stationed in Kuwait, the 257th TC was responsible for transporting supplies into Iraq. Allen received his commercial license and drove the 24-tired big rigs.
"We moved everything from planes to port-a-potties," Allen said.
Their missions were seven days long, with only two days off in between. The unit logged more than 2.2 million miles driving in its convoys within Iraq and Kuwait.
"We were driving very large trucks on very small roads with small cars. You're the biggest thing on the road," Allen said.
One person died in Allen's unit in a vehicle-related accident.
The summer was hot and humid, sometimes reaching over 140 degrees. Gail remembered that the soldiers' letters said, "Send us shade, not cookies."
Many of the soldiers chose to go on missions because it was cooler and they would get to travel to regions with water, such as the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys in Iraq, Gail said.
"The only (air conditioning) we had was to drive faster," Allen said.
When Allen packed his bags for the Middle East, he took along two of his Japanese books.
"I tried to keep studying the language, but I was so busy I didn't really get to use them," Allen said.
Allen was nicknamed "the college kid" because he had lugged his schoolbooks to the other side of the world, Gail said.
The first thing Allen said he wants to do, Gail said, is "have peace and quiet."
After months without privacy, he is ready to slip back into his life as a student. In an apartment near campus, he became known as "the phantom roommate" because he decided to keep his room when he left. Yesterday, he had yet to meet his new roommate.
Last fall, Gail attended the UA Honors Assembly to accept an academic award for Allen. The announcer started crying when Gail, who wore a yellow ribbon, approached the podium to accept the award.
"These guys were snatched and gone. I don't think some people realized there were empty seats in the classrooms," Gail said.
Allen had already spent four years on active duty in the Army, stationed in South Korea, and was attending the UA with the GI Bill. He signed up for the Army Reserve in fall 2002.
After missing three semesters, Allen said he is eager to get back to his studies. He is registered for language classes this summer so he can brush up on Japanese before heading off this September to study abroad in Japan for a year.
"It's a good program. I am looking forward to it," Allen said.
Gail said she is happy to have her son back. The 13 yellow ribbons she put up on the mailbox for each month he was gone will finally be taken down, she said.