Des Plaines soldier home for the holidays

U.S. Army Spc. Kevin Hansen received two special surprises this year.

Hansen, 23, was originally supposed to come home in October. But the Des Plaines resident's 12-month tour of duty in Iraq was extended to 15 months. That meant he would miss his second straight Christmas with his family.

But Hansen, a generator technician who was stationed in Ramadi, was in for a pleasant surprise. Progress in Ramadi, once called the most dangerous place in Iraq, was proceeding so rapidly that Hansen was told he could come home a month early.

On Sunday, Hansen received his second surprise. He had just flown into O'Hare from Colorado, where he is currently stationed, and was on his way home to Des Plaines with his family, including wife Lauryn.

"I have been living here my whole life, so I know which way to go and which way not to go. When (we) started to get on the highway, I was like, 'That isn't right.'"

What Hansen didn't know was that a Patriot Guard Riders escort awaited him at the Des Plaines Oasis.

He was greeted in the parking lot by a large group standing in the cold and waving American flags that crackled in the wind like firecrackers.

The procession, which included Des Plaines police and fire vehicles, then headed down the tollway, exited at Elmhurst Road and headed toward Hansen's parents' home, stopping briefly to receive a salute from firefighters at the Thacker Street station.

Food awaited in a big tent set up by the Hansen house on Webster Lane, where Kevin Hansen described his emotions, as the John Sebastian song "Welcome Back" played in the background.

"It was overwhelming," he said. "I don't think I really deserve it. There are a lot of people that deserve it. Everybody should get what I got."

Hansen, who will return to Fort Carson, Colo. and serve until August, is proud of what was accomplished in Ramadi.

"Before we got there it was the world's most dangerous place. It was like guerrilla warfare every day for the first five months. And we went in there and we cleaned up the whole city, and then after that, people loved us and they wanted to help us."

The Maine West graduate's job was to help maintain more than 50 generators in the city. He also functioned as a wheel mechanic and a tractor mechanic.

Ultimately, he said he wants to return to Chicago and work for the Union Pacific railroad. His short-term plans include buying a Subaru -- he hasn't had a car in two years.

Hansen said he missed his family, and it has been hard being away from his wife. He also missed "seeing green."

It was equally hard for his family.

"It's been a really long 14 months," Lauryn Hansen said. "Just worrying constantly what's going to happen, not hearing from him sometimes."

The two have been married about a year and a half, but most of that time, Hansen has been deployed.

In the beginning, it was especially hard for Lauryn. Sometimes it would be days before she received a call from him, since communication would be shut off after a unit suffered a casualty, to allow the Army to contact the family. Hansen also told his wife about firefights, and how he would go to sleep hearing gunshots.

Gradually, though, the situation improved, she said, to the point where he hadn't hear a gunshot since April.

Andrew "Wolfman" Regal, of the Patriot Guard Riders, said Lauryn sent a heartfelt letter to the Patriot Guard Riders Web site.

"She didn't try to play up the fact that her husband is any more special than the next soldier, but she just feels that if she can do something special for him, that it would really, really be appreciated. When I read that letter, it just touched my heart, and I said, 'I got to do this mission for her.'"

The guard was set up two and half years ago to protect families from protesters at soldiers' funerals. Regal said it has grown to 120,000 members.