AUGUSTA, Maine — For 304 days, Amanda Kelly has carted around a life-size cardboard cutout of her husband, Maine Army National Guard Sgt. Ryan Kelly. The so-called “Flat Daddy” has been to restaurants and concerts, and appeared in a photo album she kept while the soldier was deployed in Afghanistan.
On Friday, she happily traded in the 2-D version for the real deal.
“I’ve got butterflies,” Kelly of Lewiston said at the Augusta Armory during the minutes leading up her husband’s arrival. Ryan Kelly was one of 13 soldiers in the 1035th Survey and Design Team, part of the 133rd Engineer Battalion, sent to Afghanistan last year to assist in the consolidation, deconstruction or modification of U.S. military bases as American involvement in the country draws down.
The 133rd returned stateside last Saturday from a yearlong deployment in Afghanistan. Its members are being debriefed at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Because they returned from overseas before other units, the 13 members of the survey and design team are the first to arrive back in Maine.
Kelly’s husband said that being home and seeing his wife was “like a weight had been lifted.” It was his second deployment overseas. What did he miss most?
“You miss the comforts of home, really,” he said. “You’re around a bunch of men all the time, so that can get old after a while. Food is one of them, too, it isn’t that great over there.”
Ryan Kelly became an accidental celebrity when his wife and her friend, whose boyfriend was also overseas, brought their Flat Daddies to the Brad Paisley concert in Bangor. The country music superstar grabbed the cardboard cutouts, brought them up on stage and signed them. Later, Paisley used social media to search for the identities of the two soldiers.
One-hundred seventy-eight members of the 133rd left on the battalion’s third overseas deployment in August 2013. During the deployment, the survey and design team provided engineer surveys of job sites and detailed drawings for various engineer missions to every company in the 133rd. The group also supported the largest Air Force construction project ever undertaken on Bagram Airfield, the largest U.S. military base in the country.
One of those engineers was Spc. Michael Davis, 24, of Eastbrook. Among the throng of friends and family waiting for him in Augusta was 22-year-old Samantha Dickison — his girlfriend.
“Hopefully soon-to-be fiancee,” she said. Davis had missed a lot while he was overseas. In the roughly 11 months since he’d last seen her, Dickison graduated from Eastern Maine Community College and passed her board exam to become a certified nursing assistant. She had also bought a new car.
As an announcement came that the soldiers’ bus had just entered Augusta, and would arrive in about two minutes, Dickison went outside with the others.
“This is the longest two minutes ever,” she said, clutching a handmade sign. It read: “His eyes are blue, his boots are tan, get outta my way so I can kiss my man!”
The soldiers marched into the Armory, and briefly assembled in formation before being released to the eager crowd. Davis carried the colors of the 1035th, and held onto them as he was smothered with hugs and kisses from friends and family.
“It’s amazing being back,” Davis said. “Just … green trees. I don’t even know what to say. It’s home.”
The 133rd, with about 560 members, is made up of soldiers based in Skowhegan, Lewiston, Caribou, Norway, Portland, Belfast, Westbrook and Gardiner. The rest of the deployed soldiers from the battalion are expected to return to Maine early next week.
