Capt. Brad Velotta wanted to get home to see his grandmother one last time. Staff Sgt. Chad Denton misses his five kids. But like the rest of the colleagues in the 4-23 infantry battalion of the the 172nd Stryker Brigade, Velotta and Denton won't be going home from Iraq any time soon, according to Newsweek. .

Things are rough back home for the families they left behind, as Newsweek reports.

"Meanwhile, families are falling apart. Back in Alaska, one 4-23 wife has a suicidal child in the hospital; another suffered an ectopic pregnancy and had to beg her husband's commander to let him come home to care for her. Another wife attempted suicide. Her husband was sent home, but his career, the other wives say, is over. Gossip is running wild: who drinks too much, who has a compulsive-gambling problem, whose kids are left untended."

One our denomination's chaplains, Capt. John Grauer, serves the 4-23. Even he broke down when news came down about the delay in going home. Newsweek narrated the scene through his eyes:


"There was a rush of soldiers trying to get on the phone to call home. Some literally threw up when they heard the news. Some were extremely angry ... Some went to sleep for a couple of days, hoping maybe it was all a bad dream."

It was tough for Grauer to tell his wife, Tyra, and their two girls—especially Morriah, 9. "She started crying," he says. "That's when I put the sunglasses on."

Behind the shades, he wept.