GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM Above, Jose Uson, center, stood at attention in front of his unit, the 322nd Civil Affairs Brigade, yesterday morning at a Schofield Barracks gym.

Returning reservists spice up Mom’s Day

On Mother's Day, some got the biggest gift of all: the safe return of daughters and sons from Iraq.

"This is the best Mother's Day present we can give you," Brig. Gen. John Ma told a homecoming crowd of wives, spouses and friends who gathered to welcome 128 civil-affairs soldiers at a Schofield Barracks gym yesterday.

Ma, commanding general of the Army Reserve's 9th Regional Readiness Command, was one of several officials who welcomed home members of the 322nd Civil Affairs Brigade, which spent a year in Iraq.

Most of the soldiers in the brigade are from the islands, and the rest from mainland units. The unit earned 30 Bronze Stars, working out of Baghdad and sending teams into the countryside.

Staff Sgt. May Acoba, who was reunited with her 4-year-old daughter, Shawana James-Acoba, said her Mother's Day gift for herself and her daughter was to get a manicure and pedicure.

"I plan just to pamper myself and then visit my grandmother and my two aunts after going to church," she said.

Julie Aki said she was up since 3 a.m. Saturday morning making sure everything was just right for her daughter, Staff Sgt. Amber Aki. "I was making signs, getting leis and making sure her room was clean," she said.

GREGG K. KAKESAKO / GKAKESAKO@STARBULLETIN.COM Chief Warrant Officer Bob Bretschneider hugged his wife, Mary, during yesterday's homecoming celebration for the Pacific Army Reserve's Fort Shafter-based unit, which returned home after a year in Iraq.

Chief Warrant Officer Bob Bretschneider, who served in Vietnam, said there were no such homecomings back then.

"There was nothing," said Bretschneider, who served as a medic with the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam. "The hardest thing being a Vietnam vet is that after we left Vietnam, no one wanted to wear their uniform," he said.

His wife, Mary, whom he met while home on leave in Fredonia, Wis., in 1968, said her husband called just after their chartered jet landed in Maine.

"When they arrived, the Maine VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) was handing out cameras and phone cards."

She said all the efforts and appreciation left her husband speechless.

"He choked up as he talked to me on the phone," she said.

"We never had anything like that when we came home from Vietnam," Bretschneider said. That welcome, and yesterday's reception, "It was just beautiful," he said.

Bretschneider wanted to go to Iraq so badly that he had to sign a waiver because Army regulations do not permit those anyone older than 60 to deploy. Bretschneider turned 61 in March. He has been a member of the 322nd for the past 22 years.

"He didn't want to miss the opportunity to serve with the men and women of the 322nd," his wife said.