FAYETTEVILLE -- The city that prides itself on taking care of its military brothers and sisters is having a bit of a family reunion, with the entire 82nd Airborne Division expected home by early September.
The 82nd - 22,000 soldiers strong - is one of the Army's workhorses in the war against terrorism, and its units have been repeatedly deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. Their return to Bragg as U.S. combat operations come to an end in Iraq marks only the second time the whole division has been at the base since 2003.
"It's nice to have everybody back, but at the same time, it's hectic," said Sgt. Trevor Mitchell, a forward observer for the 82nd who got back from Afghanistan in June. "This town fills up quick. It's not that big a place for all those people."
The 82nd is the Army's go-to force when it needs a lot of soldiers on the ground, fast. The division is trained to deploy anywhere in the world on 18 hours' notice.
Soldiers from the 82nd were among the first sent to Afghanistan in October 2001, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Additional troops went to Afghanistan in 2002.
In March 2003, when the U.S. invaded Iraq, troopers from the 82nd parachuted in to take control of Saddam International Airport in Baghdad.
Since then, the division has been almost constantly in motion, with units deploying as others came home. By 2008, the 82nd had deployed on more anti-terrorism missions than any other division in the Army.
The 82nd has had at least 211 combat fatalities in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In addition to its work in the Middle East, the 82nd sent about 5,000 soldiers to New Orleans in September 2005 to help with search-and-rescue and to provide security after Hurricane Katrina. After the earthquake in Haiti earlier this year, about 1,500 of the 82nd's soldiers went there to provide security and humanitarian aid.
Many units have deployed several times over the past seven years.
Increasingly, the families of married soldiers stay in the area when their spouses deploy, so Fayetteville no longer becomes a ghost town when the 82nd is away. For the past several years, Fayetteville's overall economy has remained somewhat flat, according to Mayor Tony Chavonne. Few businesses close when the troops leave, and they don't expand that much when the guys are home.
"No big downturns, no big booms," Chavonne said. "Just pretty steady. Right now, steady looks pretty good."
Owners of some businesses can tell when more planes have landed. As groups of a few dozen - or a few hundred - soldiers have been returning since the spring, they've been coming in waves to Shooter's Supply, a gun shop on Bragg Boulevard a few miles from post.
"We've had a lot of traffic in here," said clerk Terry Bouthiller. As soldiers come back from a deployment and turn in their weapons, many go shopping for one of their own, she said: a hunting rifle, or a handgun they can use for target shooting. Bouthiller and her manager like the extra revenue, she said, "But the main thing is that they got home safely."
Motorcycles, a popular welcome-home present soldiers buy for themselves, have been moving fast at Hotrodz custom cycles in town. General manager Mark Hendrix hired two extra sales people and doubled his inventory from 40 to more than 80 bikes two weeks ago. By Wednesday, he had sold 15 of them.
Single soldiers who lived on post before they deployed have more pressing needs, because most sent home whatever they didn't take overseas. When they get back to base, the only clothes they have for the moment are in their duffel bags.
Spec. Antonio Snow and Spec. Nicky Robles of the 782nd Brigade Support Battalion, part of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, needed everything, they said, after getting back to Fort Bragg about 4 a.m. Tuesday.
As soon as they had checked in their gear, they got a rental car and headed to Cross Creek Mall, where they bought new cell phones and running shoes. The shoes were a nice change from the boots they had been wearing for the past year in Afghanistan.
Being home is bittersweet, Robles said.
"It was not the best deployment. We lost 43 in the brigade, and one out of our battalion," he said. "It's great we're home. But it's a family out there that didn't get their soldier back."
With so many of Fort Bragg's 53,000 soldiers home, and more than 2,000 soldiers set to begin moving to the area as part of the base realignment program next year, infrastructure on and off base will be tested. The 82nd, which falls under the 18th Airborne Corps, also shares the base with the Special Forces Command and the Joint Special Operations Command.
The presence of tens of thousands of the most highly trained forces in the Army shapes much of Fayetteville's personality. But the state's sixth-largest city, founded in the 1700s along the banks of the Cape Fear River, is also a major commercial center and home to three colleges. As much as they look forward to their next post when they're in their 20s, many soldiers eventually return to Fayetteville in retirement, settling in suburban neighborhoods with access to parks, shopping, and cultural events.
As it is, traffic slows to a crawl coming onto base in the mornings and off in the evenings, and it's gridlock on the south side of Fayetteville where the newest residential neighborhoods have been built. New and wider roads are planned but not completed.
But in Fayetteville, nothing lasts forever.
Already, some units of the division have heard they'll be deployed next year, most likely back to Afghanistan.
