By By JAMES COLLINS / Niles Daily Star
NILES - After serving 15 months in Iraq, Niles native and Army Sergeant Patrice Garrick is happy to be home with her family, but still has a deep concern for her fellow soldiers remaining in the volatile country.
Though no one in her unit of 386 troops was killed in action, there was a constant threat of danger and Garrick said you always had to be on your toes.
While stationed in Baghdad, she said mortars and rocket propelled grenades were fired in their direction numerous times.
Security was so tight at her base, soldiers were not allowed to leave the compound without an armored Humvee.
The 28-year-old returned home to America two weeks ago, but her heart and prayers remain with the troops still in Iraq.
While serving in Iraq, her two sons - Malik, 4, and Makhi, 2 - stayed with their grandmother Patricia Flowers on Clarendon Street in Niles.
This week, Garrick, a 1994 Niles High School graduate, has returned home to Niles to visit her mother.
Garrick now lives at Fort Polk in Louisiana with the two children and her husband of five years, J. Derrick Garrick, who remained in Louisiana to work while she was in Iraq.
On Monday, the reunited family took some much-deserved vacation time by spending the day sightseeing in Chicago.
As a sergeant in flight operations, Garrick performed duties similar to an air traffic controller for the Blackhawk and Kiowa helicopters in Iraq.
When she arrived in the country over a year ago, conditions were difficult with no electricity or running water, but she said those conditions steadily improved over time.
She tried to call her family at least three time a week, but said it was very difficult to go for so long without seeing them, especially around the holidays.
This was something that was also hard on her family.
Flowers was often glued to the TV news and said she worried for her daughter's safety every time she heard about another bombing or shooting in Iraq.
She said those uneasy feelings about her daughter's safety were not gone until she actually got to hold her in her arms for the first time in several months on Saturday.
While there is a sense of relief that her child made it home safely, Flowers still worries for the remaining soldiers and their families.
And while there is a threat posed by Iraqis who do not want our troops in their country, Garrick said it seemed as though most Iraqis knew they were there to help. A majority of the people over there are happy we are there," she said.
She said the changes were apparent in many of the Iraqis she met.
Garrick hopes the war will end as soon as possible, but realizes it will be awhile before all American soldiers return home.