Family, Friends Welcome Home Wounded Antioch Soldier
Kyle White gets a huge welcome home to Antioch from family, friends and Veterans groups.
“It’s real nice to be home with family.”
By Allen Payton, Publisher
Riding in a convertible Corvette and escorted from the airport to his home by the Warriors Watch motorcycle riders, Antioch police and local firefighters, 2005 Antioch High School graduate Kyle White arrived to a huge welcome at his home from his family, friends and veterans organizations, on Saturday, July 9.
Kyle White arrives home - photo by James Fajardo
Having healed from the bullet wound that ripped through his left leg and struck an artery, while serving for eight months in the cold mountains of Afghanistan, Private 1st Class White, a radio transmission operator, is home for 30 days.
Joined by his mother Lisa, father Daryl, older brother Derick who served in the Army National Guard, and his sisters Nicole and Megan, his “nana” Grandma Tricia Foster, Grandpa and Grandma White, Uncle Darin White and four other uncles, aunts and cousins, all from Antioch, Kyle shared of his time in serving in the Army and Afghanistan.
Kyle White (in light blue shirt), with brother Derick, mom Lisa and dad Daryl White at his Welcome Home party.
He joined the Army at the recruiting center in Antioch on January 13, 2010 then was deployed to Afghanistan, last October 20. He was in the mountains at the 10,000 foot elevation.
“It was cold all the time,” Kyle said. “Then it warmed up in April.”
Then in May everything changed.
“We had been there for eight months, when on Memorial Day I got shot,” Kyle said.
He’d been hit by a PKM 762 round that went through his Platoon Leader then hit Kyle in the left leg. The bullet ripped through his hamstring, hit a major artery and came out his groin.
“My squad leader, Staff Sergeant Gomez, picked me up and carried me 400 meters up the hill,” he stated. “Then he dragged me another 400 meters and took care of my leg.”
“He carried me to the helicopter and they flew me back to the base,” Kyle added. “I lost six quarts of blood.”
His mother, Lisa White heard about his injury about 10 p.m. that same night.
“I ran into to take the phone to his daddy,” she said. “I began to pray. I knew he was going to be OK.”
Kyle spoke with his parents from his hospital bed at the base in Afghanistan. While still in the hospital, he was presented with a Purple Heart by a Two-Star General and Commanding Sergeant Major.
Then, when he arrived in the states, his parents flew to meet him.
“We saw him on June 18 in Louisiana, when he entered the states” Lisa said. “It was like exhaling, knowing he was safe.”
At the end of his 30 days at home, Kyle will return to Louisiana to finish his four year commitment in the Army.
“I’m just relaxing,” he said. “It’s real nice to be home with my family.”
Also in attendance at Kyle’s return home party were the Blue Star Moms, Combat Veterans Association and the American Legion.
Riders from the Warriors Watch, whose slogan is “We Have Your Backs At Home,” are not all veterans, but are volunteers.
Kyle White with family, friends, and representatives of Warriors Watch and other Veterans groups celebrate his homecoming. - photo by James Fajardo
“You just have to be a patriot,” said one of their leaders Dave Raymond (who drove the Blue Angels Corvette).
For more information on their organization visit www.warriorswatch.org. For more details on Kyle White’s story visit www.caringbridge.org/visit/kylewhite.
the attachments to this post:
Kyle White with Warriors Watch
Kyle White arrives home
Kyle White with family
Kyle White welcome home party
