Soldier back at home post

Elia Powers

On Balboa Peninsula sidewalks, residents wondered what had become of

the man with short hair and neatly cropped sideburns who delivered

their mail in an Army cap.

At the Bay Station Post Office, mail carriers prayed each morning

for their friend, Bryan Goodson. As they passed by his work station

and glanced at the montage of military photographs assembled in his

honor, they thought of him.

Inside the Goodson home in Costa Mesa, two girls celebrated

birthdays without their father.

As months passed, family, friends and co-workers poured over

letters Goodson wrote from an underground garage in Baghdad. The

notes almost always ended with the same words: “Miss You, Love You

... Bryan.”

It was a sentiment shared by those who were privy to Goodson’s

situation.

“I had never been so nervous in my life,” said colleague Neil De

Louis of the months Goodson served overseas. “Sometimes it seemed

like we were all holding our breaths for a year.”

By now, everyone has had time to exhale.

Goodson, 35, is back in Southern California, finished with the

11-month tour in Iraq that forced him to take an extended sabbatical

from his post office position.

He is still recovering from months spent sleeping on cots and

constantly scanning his surroundings. Goodson is planning to return

to his mail-carrying job by early May.

“I’ll take the worst day on Balboa compared to what I did in

Iraq,” Goodson said.

Taking a

different track

More than 10 years ago, Goodson made a move that put him on the

military track.

Feeling the financial burdens of caring for a newborn child and a

wife with a congenital heart defect, Goodson enlisted in U.S. Army --

primarily for insurance reasons, he said -- and earned an assignment

to the 82nd Airborne Division.

The family moved to a house near Fort Bragg, N.C., and Goodson

began his tour of active duty.

Four years later, the Goodsons returned to Southern California.

Bryan joined the California Army National Guard as a reservist and

began his job at the Bay Station Post Office.

Last March, Goodson was one of 139 members of Bravo Company,

1/160th Infantry, to be deployed to Baghdad.

While in Iraq, the troops escorted military personnel and

ambassadors, transported truckloads of equipment and drove millions

of dollars in cash to undisclosed locations.

Throughout Goodson’s service, the company encountered regular

resistance from insurgents. Rockets and mortar rounds were fired at

the underground parking complex where the soldiers lived, Goodson

said.

During a trip to fix a broken oil pipeline, Goodson said he and a

dozen other troops faced an ambush.

“There were signs of trouble,” he recounted. “People were burning

tires, and there were barricades in the street. A vehicle came from

the side and rammed our car, which then came to a halt.”

None of the Bravo Company troops were injured in the attack, but

Goodson said they shot and killed a number of insurgents, who were

trying to keep the pipelines from being restored.

Goodson said that during the 11 months, nine members of his

company received purple hearts for wounds. But there were no

fatalities.

So many changes

Back at home, co-workers at the post office were keeping an eye on

Goodson’s wife and children. They donated money to the family and

took them out for meals.

“Bryan’s absence unified the office,” said Sheree Coates, Bay

Station Post Office manager. “People who normally kept to themselves

wanted to help his family. It was a personal connection to the war.”

And mail carriers said it wasn’t easy to fill in for Goodson, who

regularly took on multiple routes.

“It was one body, but it was the work of four people,” co-worker

Darla Stoecker said.

Mary Ann Kay, a 22-year mail carrier at Bay Station, organized an

effort to put up a welcome-back banner that hangs from the front of

the post office.

Goodson’s daughters, 10-year-old Maggie and 7-year-old Morganne,

sent letters to the mail station to express their gratitude for all

the support during their father’s absence.

They saw Goodson in November when he was home on a two-week

vacation.

“It was painful for me to be home,” Goodson said. “Fallujah

attacks were continuing, so I felt an obligation to be there. But I

still wanted to be home with my wife and kids.”

On March 8, more than a year after he left Costa Mesa, Goodson

returned home.

“So much happens in those 14 months,” said Carolynn Goodson, his

wife of 12 years. “It was hard for him to be away that long.”

Goodson said he still has about 18 months of reserve service left,

but that it’s “unlikely” he will have to return to Baghdad.

For now, he’s content making regular trips into the post office to

see his friends.

“I’ve been overwhelmed by their support,” he said. “It’s more than

I could have ever imagined.”

* ELIA POWERS is the enterprise and general assignment reporter.

He may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or by e-mail at

elia.powers@latimes.com.