Fire Rescue News - Little EHT Rescue workers, family and friends surprise Iraq soldier at GSP rest stop, escort him home
Video and a photo gallery from the family reunion.
LITTLE EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP — Shortly after U.S. Army Spc. Brandon Grochala first arrived in Iraq last year, he called his mother to check in.
“The call started normal enough,” Patricia Jones recalled Monday. “But ended with the sound of chaos and my son shouting: ‘They’re bombing us!’”
“They like to shoot mortars at us,” the 22-year-old township resident would later surmise. “You learn that you constantly have to.....Continue Reading
be looking over your shoulder.”
Grochala’s homecoming Monday afternoon was much less chaotic.
Jones greeted him as he stepped out of a pickup truck at the Garden State Parkway rest stop in Galloway Township with a gigantic hug and a tiny teddy bear dressed as an Army soldier.
“You got so big,” Jones told her son.
“All I did was work out in my free time,” he replied.
A half-dozen firetrucks and rescue vehicles from the Mystic Islands, Parkertown, West Tuckerton and New Gretna volunteer fire companies then escorted Grochala and his family and friends to the Mystic Islands firehouse for a small party.
“I was excited to come home, but I wasn’t expecting anything like this,” Grochala said during the tearful reunion. “This is unbelievable. Words can’t describe what this means to me.”
Little Egg Harbor Patrolman Tom Tricka, a neighbor of Grochala’s, helped organize the homecoming.
“This is a kid who would give you the shirt off his back in a blizzard,” said Tricka, who is also a veteran. “After high school, he could have done what some of the other kids in town did. But he made the right decision, and I couldn’t be prouder of him.”
Click here for a photo gallery from Monday's homecoming.
Tricka introduced Grochala to the Army recruiter who signed him up for service — Staff Sgt. Justin Combs — who was also in attendance Monday.
“For some recruiters, they’ll send you on your way once the papers are signed,” said Combs, of Little Egg Harbor Township. “But I was lucky enough to be stationed here in my hometown. Brandon graduated from the same high school as I did. ... I think of these boys and girls as family. And even though I usually keep my emotions close to the vest, I am thrilled to be here to see Brandon return home safely.”
While Combs said Little Egg Harbor Township has had a number of people deployed during the current Middle East conflicts, Tricka said this is the first such homecoming in a number of years.
“We don’t have a list telling us when these guys are coming back,” Tricka said. “But, in general, I don’t think people give enough notice to veterans. These are people who deserve a lot more attention and thanks, because they’re out putting themselves in harm’s way to preserve our way of life.”
But Grochala said he was just happy to be home at all.
“This is what I missed the most while I was over there,” he said, gesturing to the dozens of people who attended his homecoming. “I missed being able to see the people I love in person.”
And Jones said she missed that as well.
“This is just amazing,” the single mother said as she reached out to touch her only child on his arm. “You can talk on Skype and the Internet, but that is no match for this ... the ability to see, touch, feel. It’s been a lonely year and a half without him here. Now I can hug him again, and just in time for Christmas. It’s a wonderful day.”
Grochala will be home until Jan. 4, when he is scheduled to return to Fort Bliss in Texas.
“That’s too soon,” Jones told her son.
“It’s always too soon,” he replied.
Contact Robert Spahr: 609-272-7283 RSpahr@pressofac.com
