Home Sweet Home: Neighbors give soldier warm welcome
SYCAMORE - When Jon Fox got out of the passenger seat of his family's minivan in their driveway Tuesday he was met with cheers and waving flags. His neighbors on Charles Waite Street had started calling each other that afternoon when they learned that Fox would be coming home after a yearlong deployment in Iraq. They drew stars and wrote “Welcome Home” with chalk on the street. Children on bicycles and battery-powered cars waved American flags. The Army National Guard captain was home on leave this summer, but he's permanently home now. Fox returned to the United States on Thursday, but his family first got to see him Tuesday at a welcome-home ceremony for the Illinois Army National Guard's 3625th Company in North Riverside. Fox's tour of duty started when his now-2-year-old daughter Peyton was less than a year old. “She saw him (Tuesday) and asked, ‘Are you coming home with us?'” Julie Fox said with a smile. Peyton and her 4-year-old brother, Gunner, both wore camouflage pants that matched their father's fatigues. Fox, a physician's assistant, spent a year in Iraq at an acute care clinic on an Army base in Balad, north of Baghdad. Julie Fox said the neighbors have been supportive and helpful throughout the year. “We've got the best street ... (The neighbors) are the reason he could be gone for a year,” the full-time Northern Illinois University student said. “They helped mow the lawn and baby-sit.” This last deployment was the second in Jon Fox's 15 years in the Guard. His first deployment was in 2003, when he provided stateside assistance in Operation Enduring Freedom. He also spent two weeks last year in El Salvador on a humanitarian mission. He plans to spend time at home with his family before returning to his job next month. “It's a little overwhelming,” he said about seeing all of his neighbors at once. His daughter hugged his leg. “It's good to be home,” he said. Aracely Hernandez can be reached at ahernandez@daily-chronicle.com.