Hollister National Guard Specialist Dionicio Arevalo Jr. arrived
home from Iraq on Sunday to all his Christmas gifts, his friends
and family and someone he has been waiting to see since he
left.
Hollister National Guard Specialist Dionicio Arevalo Jr. arrived home from Iraq on Sunday to all his Christmas gifts, his friends and family and someone he has been waiting to see since he left.
“I’ve always wanted to have a son, and when I was there all I wanted to do was hold him,” he said.
Dionicio Arevalo III was born Sept. 11, 2003 and met his father for the first time when they were united at Oakland Airport on Easter Sunday. Since last May, Arevalo Jr. was stationed at a prison in Kabul, Iraq. Part of the military police, he had the dangerous position as a gunner on top of a humvee.
His mother Petra Arevalo, who has been so worried because of all the recent violence in Iraq, was overwhelmed when she watched her son finally land on California soil.
“They were all coming at once and I kept thinking which one is my son?” she said. “When I finally saw him I was so overwhelmed. I wanted to cry, I wanted to yell, I wanted to run, it was just an unbelievable feeling.”
Arevalo’s seven-month-old son, and six-year-old daughter Katherine also were there, and greeted their father dressed in camouflage suits with their dad’s name written across the chest.
“It was very hard to miss the birth of my son,” he said. “And when I was in basic training all the guys kept talking about ‘my son this and my son that,’ and it made me miss him terribly.”
Home for what is expected to be a permanent stay, Arevalo Jr. said he is looking forward to getting back to normal.
His mom made Arevalo beans, carnitas and some of his other favorite Mexican dishes, food he missed so much overseas.
“My first taste of Mexican food was unbelievable,” he said. “I mean I’ve had some since being back in Washington, but nothing is like home, you know?”
A Christmas tree stands in the living room of Arevalo’s home even though it’s April. Presents for Arevalo have being laying there since winter. His wife, Rosse, and their daughter Katherine wanted to make sure he didn’t miss out on one of his favorite holidays.
“I got to open all my gifts on Sunday,” he said. “It was nice.”
Thinking back to when he joined the military, Arevalo Jr. said he never imagined he would end up in the dangerous conditions he was in.
“I always knew I may go overseas for like two weeks of annual training for something,” he said. “But I had no idea that I would end up in a situation like Iraq.”
Exhausted from his travels, and overjoyed to be reunited with his family, Arevalo Jr. has a lot of plans for the future.
“I really want to take my son and daughter places that I haven’t had the chance to do,” he said. “It’s such a great feeling to be back with them.”
