A Thanksgiving to remember for a multisoldier family

The roses were quickly forgotten.

When the planes touched down, they became a flag of battered stems, waved frantically, to welcome back the last of the Vasquez family platoon for at least a few days' break from military service. "Rosanna!" her husband shouted so loudly that his voice croaked. "Rosanna!"

With Rosanna, her brothers Martin and Francisco, and her husband, Mark Brown, all in the military, constantly coming and going in the US antiterror campaign, the extended family had not been together since January, 2001. When the Vasquez family sits down to turkey and tamales Thursday, it will be the first Thanksgiving reunion in 13 years.

Against the somber background of growing doubts about a difficult war, the return of the 101st Airborne from Iraq to Fort Campbell, Ky., was a shining moment. It notched a success for the Army, struggling to get troops home within a year of their deployments. Just as important, the Vasquez reunion served as a reminder of how many military families, especially those with multiple enlistees, overcome distance and danger to make the most of their brief moments together.

"This is very, very special to have them all back safe and in one place," says patriarch Francisco Ruiz Vasquez in red snakeskin cowboy boots, who emigrated from Mexico to settle his family in Gardena, Calif., in 1968.

The Army doesn't keep statistics on the number of families with multiple members enlisted, but they are plentiful. "I'm constantly surprised by how many multiple-soldier families there are out there," says Army Maj. Jeff Allen. "But we need more of them."

Of course, these are also the families who bear the brunt of sacrifice, whether in terms of fatalities, as depicted in the 1998 movie "Saving Private Ryan," or simply in terms of lost time together, as in the case of the Vasquezes.

Capt. Martin Vasquez, the second oldest of the Vasquez siblings and the first to join the Army, spent his preteen days playing soldier, his father says, and his mother hesitated before signing a release that allowed him to join at 17. Rosanna, who attended Stanford for a time, signed up next, and is now a 1st lieutenant and physician's assistant. Their brother, Francisco, is a staff sergeant and medic, who returned from Iraq in October. Her husband, Master Sgt. Brown, is a 21-year Army veteran. Among them, they share four bronze stars and two air medals (for meritorious service in flight).

Not a soldier himself, their father says he's not sure, exactly, why so many of his brood joined the military. Patriotism, service, and opportunity were certainly among them. But he says it's also a sense of thankfulness for the opportunities that America has given them.

When the procession of returned soldiers moved into the hangar to dozens of hand-painted signs and shouting family members, Francisco, waiting in the crowd, started a chant: "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!" His brother, Martin, joined in.

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