Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 8, 1991 TAG: 9103080313
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The 21-year-old Fairlawn native - possibly the first soldier from Southwest Virginia to return since the end of the war in the Middle East - was met by 18 friends and family members when he stepped off a plane at Roanoke Regional Airport.
They waved flags and yellow ribbons, and held up a sign that said, "Welcome Home, Ron." Cameras clicked and television cameras stared.
Cromer thought about turning around, but he said a flight attendant wouldn't let him.
"This caught me off guard," he said later as family and friends still milled about him in an airport hallway. "But it's a good feeling knowing everybody cares."
Cromer, who is with the military police, left Saudi Arabia late in February with an injured back. He said he was told not to reveal how his back was injured.
The 1987 Pulaski County High School graduate had been assigned to guard a military intelligence post in Riyadh.
Cromer - who was flown to a hospital in Germany two days after the ground war started - was all smiles as he told of the reason for his early return.
"I'm here on convalescent leave," Cromer said. He has 45 days.
"I plan on relaxing, spending time with my girlfriend and spending time with my family. And eating real food," he said - especially spaghetti.
An aunt, Toby Caldwell, is making him 10 pounds of pasta.
"I love spaghetti," Cromer said.
"He eats it for breakfast," Caldwell said.
Friends and relatives planned to take the soldier out to dinner Thursday night in Roanoke. A combination welcome home and birthday bash is in the works for Saturday, according to Cromer's father, Ronald Sr., and stepmother, Tanya.
Cromer, born March 9, 1969, will be 22. "We're having one big party," Tanya Cromer said.
The soldier said he found out just days ago he was headed home for the first time in 14 months. Cromer was stationed in Germany before he was sent to the Persian Gulf.
His mother, Betty Cromer, said she didn't completely believe he was coming home until she saw him. "Things can be changed, quickly," she said, holding an American flag and yellow ribbons.
Cromer was stationed in Riyadh for the entire six months he was in the Middle East. His high points, he said, were meal time and mail call.
One brush with violence came as someone he thought was a terrorist drove by his military vehicle and pointed a gun, Cromer said. Cromer said he veered off an exit ramp with his own weapon cocked and ready. No shots were fired.
The war came close to his post two days after the allied air assaults began on Iraq and Kuwait, as the first Iraqi Scud missiles flew toward Riyadh, Cromer said.
It became a common occurrence. "What I saw a lot of was Scuds coming in to Riyadh and the Patriots knocking them out," he said.
Though he flew to the United States from Germany in civilian clothes, Cromer switched to a dress uniform at a stopover in Washington, D.C.
United Airlines workers pampered him - checking on him frequently during the flight, finding him an earlier flight into Roanoke and carrying his bags from one airplane to the other so he wouldn't strain his back.
"I felt like a president," Cromer said.
Cromer can count on plenty of good food and attention while he is home, friends and family promised. "The royal treatment," said friend Tina Perrow.
Amanda Mills, a cousin from Lynchburg, said she planned to spend a week in Radford "so I can be around him. It makes me proud."
"I'm so thankful he's home safe," said Cromer's grandmother, Edith Cromer.
by CNB