Welcome home
Wapakoneta soldier makes it home in time for holidays
Jacob Brown, a U. S. Army specialist, is home for the holidays.
On Saturday he received a very special welcome from friends and family as he is home in Wapakoneta for a few weeks after spending more than a year deployed to the Middle East.
Brown’s uncle, Rusty Wright, put together the surprise welcome home.
He called the Botkins, Buckland and Wapakoneta fire departments, as well as the Auglaize County Sheriff and Wapakoneta Police Department to meet Brown at the County Engineers Garage. Brown rode the final three miles to his home on a fire engine after his parents detoured on their way home from the Detroit airport to stop in at the county garage rendezvous point.
Then, along that three- mile stretch home, Brown was greeting with welcome home signs every 100 feet of the journey.
Wright was determined to give his nephew the welcome home he believes every service member deserves.
“I don’t think ( service men and women) get the recognition and everything. He turned 21 when he was over in Iraq,” Wright said. “I think the boys need to be recognized for what they do for us.”
Brown did not see this coming.
“It’s amazing to see everybody come together as a community and absolutely just crush it,” Brown said of the coordinated surprise.
“It’s definitely a culture shock for sure, but definitely great to see all the old faces we’ve been missing while I was gone,”
Brown said. “It was more than I could ever imagine. This is the best homecoming I could ever even think of.”
Brown spent more than 11 months in Iraq, and said although he often thought of home, the mission comes first. On occasion
he and his fellow soldiers went to the Iraq- Syria border and also took part in several reconnaissance missions. But as focused as he stayed on his missions, he thoughts always strayed back home.
“Family and friends always stay in the back of your head,” Brown said, noting considering his location contact was limited.
He spent most of his time in the midwestern part of Iraq, at Al- Asad Airbase and helped during the process of turning over another base to the Iraqi army.
Among the first orders of business as Brown enjoys his break are petting his dogs, seeing his family, hanging with friends and drinking a beer.
His parents are understandably thrilled to see their son home, especially for the holidays.
“We’re ecstatic. He hasn’t been home since 2019 in July,” his mother Amy said. The solider had spent Christmas 2019 in Baghdad, only being able to call his parents.
“We’re very excited to have him back,” his father Joe said, recalling how last year at Thanksgiving Vice President Pence helped serve dinner to the troops in Baghdad last year. He appreciated the effort by everyone to make the homecoming special.