Mokena soldier returns home to much applause
BY GINGER BRASHINGER Correspondent February 4, 2012 10:56PM
Mokena resident Kathy Schatzman (right) kisses her son Army Sgt. Michael Schatzman (left) during a homecoming gathering for his return from Afghanistan outside Mokena VFW Post 725 Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012, in Mokena. | Matthew Grotto~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 6, 2012 8:21AM
U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Schatzman, 21, and his wife, Cassie, 19, are looking forward to a belated honeymoon in Florida next week. It also will be their first wedding anniversary.
When the couple got married at Peace Community Church in Frankfort on Feb. 14, Schatzman was just about to leave for a one-year tour of duty in Afghanistan.
On Saturday afternoon, nearly one year later, that same location became the first leg of a welcome-home tribute for Schatzman and his bride, who has been living at Fort Riley, Kan., during her husband’s deployment.
“Our whole church has really wrapped their arms around this couple,” Elizabeth Lee said as she and her husband, Eric, and their three boys, Caleb, 5, Sam, 3, and Jack, 10, awaited Schatzman’s arrival. “We’ve been praying for him and sending letters all year.”
When the Schatzmans arrived, a flag line presentation and greetings from dozens of supporters met them in the church parking lot, before a caravan of family, friends and supporters in antique military vehicles, Mokena Fire Department trucks, Frankfort police cars, motorcycles and family vehicles escorted them to the Mokena Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 725 where even more well-wishers packed the hall to capacity.
“I would do this 24/7 if I could,” Mayor Joe Werner said, “especially for a Mokena hometown boy.”
Schatzman thanked the crowd for the gifts and awards presented to him by veterans’ groups, the VFW Post 725 Ladies Auxiliary and the Lincoln-Way High School District 210 ROTC, of which both Schatzmans were members during high school, as well as the support and prayers of family and friends.
“This is huge,” Schatzman said. “I had no idea this was going to happen. This is 10 times better than anything I could have imagined.”
Schatzman said he will return to Fort Riley in early March to begin training for his next deployment.
He said his time in Afghanistan was spent in combat.
“We went out and fought the enemy,” Schatzman said. “My platoon had 271 separate contacts with the enemy in 300 days.”
That was not good news for Shatzman’s mother, Kathy, who was hoping her son would have followed through with his original plans to join the Air Force.
“I would rather he was dropping bombs than shooting a gun,” she said.
She said he suddenly changed his mind in high school and decided to join the Army.
Schatzman seems content with his decision. He reenlisted before his first enlistment was up, and he said he is “thinking about” making the Army a career.
The immediate future, however, will be spent with his wife, who said she tells him every day that she’s proud of him. She said she is putting her college work at Kansas State University on hold while Schatzman “readjusts” to being home. “School’s always going to be there,” Cassie Schatzman said. “Right now, we just have a lot to catch up on together.”
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