soldier returns home

Published in The Post-Star (B3)

10/6/05

It’s hard to surprise a man who has spent 13 months in a place where bombs explode almost daily.

On Sunday, however, Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Saville walked through the door of the Hudson Falls firehouse and stopped in his tracks as more than 85 people shouted, "Surprise!"

Saville, 40, has been part of the Hudson Falls volunteer fire department for a decade and was a captain there when he left for Iraq last summer to serve with the 98th Division of the Army Reserve.

He got a warm welcome when he returned to his hometown on Sept. 28. A limousine full of friends and family — including his wife Heidi, daughter, Tiffany, and stepson, Jared — met him at the Albany International Airport. An escort of firetrucks joined them in Hudson Falls.

"We had to do it. We’re a brotherhood," said Fire Chief Paul Dietrich. "We figure he’s done his duty; served both his country and his village. He’s a real person of service."

Saville showed up at the firehouse around 2:30 p.m. Sunday for what he thought was a birthday party for a fellow firefighter. Although he was surprised to learn that he was actually the guest of honor, Saville’s reaction was calm. He simply grinned.

"Thanks," he told the crowd. "It’s good to be home."

When he didn’t say anything else, a friend teased him that he was "still a man of few words."

"Most of the words I learned in the last year; you don’t want to hear," joked Saville, a brawny man with a deeply clefted chin. He works as a technician at Glens Falls Business Machines.

Saville’s division was responsible for training Iraqi soldiers in basic combat. They spent time in Baghdad, Kirkush, Taji and Fallujah. Their goal was to help Iraqi forces become strong enough to defend themselves without American aid, and Saville said it’s a long process.

"The last group I was with was able to sustain themselves, but that’s just one small group out of many," he said.

It was a dangerous job, but that didn’t bother Saville. After all, he’s been in the military for almost 19 years, fulfilling a childhood dream of serving as a soldier.

The hardest part, he said, was being separated from his family. They agreed.

"He’s one of the only people I can talk to, and it was hard getting through my first year of high school without him," said Saville’s 15-year-old daughter, Tiffany.

"I think it’s harder with older kids, because they know the reality of the danger that their dad’s in. You can’t lie to them," said Heidi Saville. She and Shawn have been together for 14 years, having married in 1997.

Now that her husband is home again, she said, "he deserves to be treated like a king."

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