Soldier glad to replace cardboard stand-in

MAGNA — When Sgt. 1st Class Tim Woodbrey came home from war shortly before Christmas, he found himself already there — standing stiffly in a corner of the living room, wearing a suit, a boutonniere in his lapel.

He had stood in the living room of his Magna home since shortly after the marriage of a daughter in June 2003.

Actually, only the boutonniere was real. The figure was a nearly life-size cardboard cutout of President Bush, on which a family member had pasted a photo of Woodbrey's face. It was assembled as a stand-in, representing him at the marriage of a daughter that happened while he was serving in Baghdad.

"So I was at the wedding," Woodbrey said. "My wife thought that was pretty nice, because finally I couldn't talk back." Also, he said, "I ate very little."

While it was a joke that family and guests enjoyed, the figure is a poignant reminder that while overseas, Woodbrey and fellow servicemen and women have missed family outings, parties, birthdays, funerals, religious observances and other special events.

"You cannot just put life on hold when you leave. It just doesn't work that way," he said.

Woodbrey, 51, has served in the Utah National Guard for 33 years. As he put it when first interviewed by the Deseret Morning News nearly a year ago while training for war at Fort Carson, Colo., that's longer than some of his fellow soldiers have been alive.

Living at home are his wife, Toni; three sons ages 7, 10 and 17; and a daughter, 24, and her 2-year-old son. Also a black cat, who remembered him when he returned almost 11 months after leaving.

A member of the Utah Army Guard's 211th Aviation Group, he was "on loan" to the Guard's 142nd Military Intelligence Battalion. With the battalion, he went to Fort Carson, leaving on his and Toni's 27th anniversary.

The unit is split up into segments and has served in Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar. The rest of the men and women will remain in the Middle East until April, but Woodbrey was sent back to the United States for surgery to fix a pre-existing tendon problem in an arm.

He is recuperating from the operation, which he had about 2 1/2 weeks ago, and plans to go back to work soon at the Guard's West Jordan headquarters.

Members of the 142nd are military intelligence experts, but when first in the Middle East they were used for security and as drivers for members of the Iraq Survey Group, the special unit that has been searching for weapons of mass destruction.