A long-awaited reunion:
Jorge Lugo returns from Iraq

By Tom Moore

The last thing Jorge Lugo expected after nine months in Iraq and Kuwait was a welcoming parade. But on the drive home from the San Antonio International Airport, his wife Marisela made a detour to the Travel Information Center outside of town.
Gathered there on an overcast and windy late afternoon were family and friends, keeping watch for his return. His mother Gloria Lugo was anxious, anticipating the reunion. But when Jorge and Marisela pulled into the parking lot, she was occupied elsewhere, and didn't see the well-wishers surge toward Jorge as he got out of his vehicle. As people rushed by they called to her, "He's here, he's here!" A moment passed before the truth of those words struck. "He's here?" she asked, then, "He's here!" The small crowd parted, and Gloria Lugo met her son in an embrace deferred since October 2002.
The homecoming would continue into the evening. Led by the flashing lights of several Webb County Constable squad cars, a convoy of family, friends, and members of two local motorcycle groups escorted Lugo home.
A member of the 328PSB U.S. Army Reserve Unit in San Antonio, Lugo, 29, was among a 20-member contingent of personnel services troops sent to Kuwait and Iraq. His responsibilities included troop accountability in any given area of Iraq, updating identification records and maintaining records of names and locations and sending the information back to headquarters in Kuwait. "We were constantly traveling," he said. "As far as we were concerned, we had to move back and forth between different sites."
Lugo found his time in Iraq to be "an awesome experience. I don't regret it at all, seeing another culture." His experience with the Iraqi people was more balanced. "Some of them really liked you over there, and they'd wave at you," he said. "Some of them really wanted you to get the hell out of there, and they'd throw rocks at you."
A strong current of feeling in the United States regarding the conflict was one of definite support for the troops, while not necessarily agreeing with the war itself. Lugo was aware of this while in Iraq. "Once in a while we'd have access to TV and we would see news, see the demonstrations," he said. "It was upsetting to us. I guess maybe they don't understand. We don't have a choice. We joined the military, and now we have to do what they tell us. The majority of the people I've talked to have given one hundred percent support. And then some just say, 'We understand, you're just doing your job.'"
Nevertheless, Lugo has re-enlisted for six more years. "I'm planning on staying in until I retire," he said. "If it's something I don't agree with, maybe I'll move on to something else." With the present state of affairs in Iraq, however, did he consider that he might be redeployed? "In our debriefing at Ft. Sam Houston, that was the first question that came up. It's possible. I'd go if I had to. It would be hard leaving my family again, but I'd be fine with it."
Gloria Lugo is simply pleased that her son is safe and back home. "I'm feeling peace of mind," she said. "Let me say this: there was a knot in the pit of my stomach, and now it's gone." Last year she helped form the Laredo Family Support Network for Laredoans with family members serving abroad in the military. "It's given me a different perspective," she said of her involvement with the organization. "I don't feel as selfish -- that only I was going through this ordeal. I felt great support for others going through the same situation. I was so busy giving them support, it took my mind off things."
Jorge Lugo has already noted the sharp contrast of being back in Laredo, even if only for a short time. "Everything's so complicated over here, having to deal with so much over here -- family, friends, job -- having to deal with so much in such a short amount of time."
One such dilemma is his employment situation. Before Iraq, Lugo was a Laredo-based territory manager with Beaulieu of America, a carpet manufacturer out of Dalton, Georgia. A week after he returned, he didn't know if he would still have his job. "I'm guaranteed my job back; according to the Soldiers/Sailors Act of 1974, they're supposed to give me my job back. They have to offer me the same thing, but it could be in San Antonio, Houston, or out of state for that matter." His position was filled when he left, Lugo said, and the company is still processing the paperwork to reinstate him. "I don't know what's really going to happen."
Despite such developments, Lugo enjoyed his homecoming celebration, though it was tempered by the realities of a world he has perhaps only temporarily left behind. "I figured it would be something real small. Then I saw the squad cars. It was a real nice surprise. I have a lot of friends who came back, and they had done a lot more than I did, and they didn't get anything. Just their family at the airport. I wish they would have something like that for everybody."