craigdailypress.com

Members of the Quick family are breathing a sigh of relief.

Son, 20-year-old Spec. Greg Quick of the 212th Brigade returned home recently from fighting in Iraq. Though entering the Army in a time of peace, the Craig native found himself overseas a little more than a year after graduating from Moffat County High School.

"I've seen what it's really like in Iraq and it's not like you see on T.V.," he said sitting in the living room of his boyhood home with his parents Sue and Tom Quick. "It's sad to see the way he (Saddam Hussein) treated them."

Unlike a number of other military families, the Quick parents were doubly concerned when both of their sons entered the Army and were subsequently sent to serve in Iraq.

Big brother Pfc. Raymond Quick returned from Iraq late last summer, reuniting with his wife, Jennifer and baby girl, Raelyn.

Though the brothers never connected overseas, the two held similar posts in the Army, preparing food for the troops.

For Greg, that meant cooking food for an average of 400 troops a day but that number soared to 4,000 during the Thanksgiving holiday last year. This Thanksgiving, Greg was back in the U.S., stationed at Fort Sills, Okalahoma.

Greg didn't mind celebrating the traditional meal overseas, however calling it, "probably the best Thanksgiving meal ever."

Last year troops were treated to specialties such as duck and pheasant, he said.

Though Greg was often pulled from kitchen duty to fill other roles, he didn't mind the long hours associated with cook duties. When there weren't enough troops to work the kitchens, Greg sometimes worked shifts from 2 a.m. to 11 p.m.

On his own time, he discovered a way to keep up morale.

"I was the official birthday cake maker," he said. "For some people birthdays aren't a big deal but when you're out there people are really appreciative."

Working with only a handful of ingredients, Greg decorated cakes with skittles and used cinnamon roll icing and cocoa powder as a base.

Greg has about two weeks left on his vacation and a year and half left to serve in the military.

After his time's up, the Army cook plans to enter a culinary arts school in Denver and eventually open up a restaurant "somewhere in Colorado."

"It's hard to explain how glad I am that he's here," Sue said, visibly relieved.

Sue pinned pictures of her two boys on her work vest at Wal-Mart, which helped her get past the anxiety of having two sons at war. She often fell to tears each time her boys called home.

"I refuse to think of them going back, but I'm proud of them," she said. "I'm glad they're doing what they want to do."