South Shore vet comes home safely

Wagner and family celebrate Veterans Day

By STEPHEN FLANAGAN JACKSON

SPC Wagner carries his niece Ella Wagner into the house. She was just over a month old when he left for deployment. He is excited to be home in time for her first birthday.

GIBSONTON — “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again, Hurrah, Hurrah!”

These are the opening lyrics from a song made popular during the Civil War some 155 years ago. For friends and relatives of veterans, the refrain timelessly fills eyes and hearts with joy and relief.

SPC Carter Stephen Wagner is one of the many “Johnnys” who has recently come marching home again. In this case, it’s back to Gibsonton where he cut the yellow ribbon off the old oak tree out front and laid his war-weary head down on a pillow in his vacated bedroom at his parent’s home last weekend.

For the previous nine months, it has been a pillow in hostile territory in makeshift army barracks in Kuwait or in Syria. Wagner, like every one of his comrades in arms serving this deployment in the Middle East, came back to Florida: No combat injuries, no combat fatalities.

On Veterans Day 2018, Wagner could have stayed in bed, enjoying a few more relaxing, safe hours on that pillow. But the soon-to-be 23-year-old was up and about early, pounding the pavement of the South Shore area looking for a job and looking for a car. At last report Wagner got the job, as a mechanic at Tire Choice on Big Bend Road, and, any day now, could be driving himself around in his own vehicle to reacquaint himself with the Tampa Bay area. Making the transition back to a “normal” life, Wagner, a 2015 graduate of East Bay High, looks forward to enrolling in a criminal justice curriculum in an area college to further his education and career, now that he has a degree from the school of hard knocks, thanks to the U.S. Army.

Wagner is a member of the 3rd 116th Field Artillery Battalion, a National Guard unit, which officially returned to Florida on Nov. 10 after a nine-month deployment. Wagner and the Bravo Battery 3-116 is the first field artillery combat mission within the Florida Army National Guard deployed overseas since World War II.

SPC Wagner on duty in Syria.

 Wagner, unless his unit is deployed again, is back to civilian life as he is halfway through a hitch with the National Guard. He signed up three years ago when the Army recruiter told him to expect an overseas deployment. Now, with all that behind him as advertised, Wagner is a weekend warrior, scheduled for duty once a month on a weekend at the armory in Lake Wales and a two-week annual training stint at Camp Blanding near Starke.

Wagner returned with a few souvenirs, some sand (really) from the oil-rich hotspots in the Middle East, and a piece of metal from the vehicles that he was trained to keep in service.

“My job was basically as a mechanic for the HIMARS,” reflected Wagner, using much of the acronyms associated with military service. He explained that the HIMARS is an acronym for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, a four-wheel drive truck equipped for accomplishing the U.S. Army’s job, which is neutralizing Syria and defeating ISIS. Wagner lived and worked to do both 24/7 prior to his return last week. He kept the gun-bearing vehicle in top shape for the dangerous assignment of its occupants: A driver, a gunner and the chief. In Syria, the overall mission, said Wagner, is “OIR.” For the layman that is Operation Inherent Resolve.

According to the U.S. Army, Wagner’s Battalion and his specific duties are part of OEF: Operation Enduring Freedom, and OSS: Operation Spartan Shield, which also includes Kuwait. Operation Spartan Shield has been ongoing since 2011 and entails defending the U.S. against the threat of terrorism and extremism and preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The task force OSS is a multi-component organization consisting of active U.S. Army and National Guard units as well as U.S. Army Reserve.

Members of the Florida National Guard deployed to the Middle East on Sunday, Jan. 7. The soldiers with B/3-116th Field Artillery returned Saturday, Nov. 10. They flew into Lakeland Linder Airport to a waiting crowd filled with family and friends. Marching from their plane into a nearby hangar, the welcoming crowd stood to their feet with thunderous applause as the soldiers feet hit U.S. soil. 

Upon returning home SPC Wagner cuts off the yellow rib from the oak tree his parents placed there the day he deployed.

As towns all around the U.S. and Florida were celebrating Veterans Day weekend, troops — actually combat veterans now — were flying overhead and landing to reunite with their families, including Holly and Kenneth Wagner, proud and happy parents of the young veteran, their son Carter. That made for a great Veterans Day 2018.

The soldiers with B/3-116th Field Artillery returned Saturday, Nov. 10.

SPC Carter Wagner sits atop a HIMARS adorn with the Florida flag Governor Rick Scott gave them on the day of their deployment.