Welcome home, hubby!

March 27, 2005

CASEY RESSLER/Frontiersman Valley Life Editor

Sarah Burdan and her husband, David, were high school sweethearts at Colony, going to prom together and planning their life together after school. In 2000, they were married, and their storybook romance seemed complete.

Then, on Thanksgiving weekend of 2003, David got a call he wasn't expecting - as a member of the U.S. Army Reserves, he was getting called up to active duty, and he was leaving for Iraq in two weeks.

"We didn't expect it, because he was assigned to the 1984th and we were watching Korea then," Burdan said. "The 411th Engineer Battalion had a hole for a medic, and he was cross-assigned. Everything has been a real learning experience for us."

On Jan. 7, 2004, Sgt. David Burdan shipped out, leaving behind his new wife and his old life. The deployment was announced as 18 months, and while he put on his best face, Sarah was left to wonder how she would make it through that time.

"I never thought of myself as a 'soldier's wife,' because it wasn't like he was a full-time soldier. He is in the reserves," she said. "I never understood the agony the wives went through, until I went through it myself. There were a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of tears.

"It's been a real journey for both of us, David and me," she said. "I've taken it one day at a time, and my relationship with God has really deepened. He has seen us through this."

While her husband has been deployed, Sarah has tried to keep her life as "normal" as possible. She's a full-time student at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and she has gotten involved with a number of military-related organizations, such as being the state director for Operation Homefront. Still, she said it's hard not to think about what her husband is doing every minute.

As a combat medic, David Burdan has been part of a convoy line stretching through southern Iraq and into Baghdad, which is one of the "hot spots" for military action. Sarah Burdan said her husband has been on convoys in combat zones "about 75 percent of the time he's been there," which isn't exactly comforting.

"We try to e-mail each other every two to three days, but if he's on a convoy, it can be three weeks," she said. "Sometimes we can do the Yahoo! chat with video, which is nice. It's hard for all of us wives, because we just don't know what's going on all the time."

One way Burdan coped with her husband being deployed for 16 months was to write an online journal at the family Web site for the 411th, which is www.411engineers.us. She said people are welcome to check out the Web site and read her narrative, which covers the last 16 months.

"I'm not a writer, but it's just about how I was feeling and what I as going through," Burdan said. "Unless you've gone through it yourself, you don't understand. I didn't, until David left."

If asked for a user name and password, the user name is 411 and the password is 'member.' She said it is not an official Department of Defense Web site.

The 411th was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division as its primary construction battalion in central Baghdad. Lt. Col. Jonathan Wung, commander of the battalion, told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin earlier this week that his unit came under "many very close calls" from insurgents.

Sarah Burdan is not the only Valley woman who wondered how her husband was doing every night for the last 16 months.

There are 76 Alaska soldiers assigned to the 411th Engineer Battalion, including approximately 25 from the Valley, and the wives have pulled together during the deployment, Burdan said.

Those wives recently got good news, however - their men are coming home. Although they don't have a solid date yet, the military has indicated the 411th will be arriving in Alaska sometime between April 1 and April 11

The battalion was Kuwait for two weeks before traveling on to Hawaii, where there several of the companies of the 411th are headquartered.

From there, the Alaskans will come home.

"There are some soldiers coming home to babies they have never even seen before," Burdan said.

Burdan said she probably won't know the exact date of their arrival until about 24 hours before it happens. Still, her excitement has only built as the date gets closer.

"These last two weeks have been so crazy. I think they have been some of the hardest few weeks of the entire time, because I know he's coming home," Burdan said. "I'm so excited."