A year ago, George O’Brien Sr. and his wife, Louise, didn’t have appetites for enjoying a Thanksgiving Day feast.

The rural Lawrence couple were thinking about their son, Staff Sgt. George O’Brien Jr., who was beginning a tour of duty in Iraq with the Kansas Army National Guard.

“Last year, my husband and I stayed home by ourselves and ate ham and beans,” Louise O’Brien said. “Nobody had the spirit last year.”

O’Brien Jr. had been in Iraq only four days on Thanksgiving Day of last year. A mechanic, he worked in a maintenance section with the Lawrence-based Company A, 2nd Battalion, 137th Infantry.

“We were just getting started rebuilding some of the equipment we were left with,” O’Brien Jr. said. “We were making sure the vehicles were operational and able to do what we needed them to do.”

Today, O’Brien Jr., 39, is back home and will celebrate the holiday with his parents, two daughters, Tabitha, 15, and Shelby, 13. They will enjoy a holiday meal during a family gathering at a relative’s home in Kansas City, Kan.

“This year we’re going to do it up right,” Louise O’Brien said. “It’s going to be special.”

George O'Brien Jr. sits on his dream, a customized 2005 Harley-Davidson. Recently returned from Iraq, O'Brien, who has served in the military for decades, hopes to spend time with his family and riding his motorcycle.

Two weeks ago, O’Brien Jr. and the 2nd Battalion returned from Iraq to a warm welcome at the Kansas Expocentre in Topeka, where 3,000 people were waiting, along with Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Since then, O’Brien Jr. has been trying to adjust to being a civilian again.

“I’m just trying to get back to doing things myself, like cooking,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m just trying to get back into a routine. That’s been the hardest part so far.”

Next month, he will return to his job as a concrete truck driver for LM Industries, 1404 E. 24th St. Until then he will continue to relax and ride his 2005 Harley-Davidson, a motorcycle he has customized to his own preferences. He also hopes to start work rebuilding a 1949 International truck he obtained before leaving for Iraq.

O’Brien Jr.’s tour in Iraq was his third trip to a war zone. He was in Saudi Arabia during the 1990-91 Desert Shield and Desert Storm operations against Iraq. In 1989, he was with the Army at a base near Panama City when the U.S. military invaded that country to bring down dictator Manual Noriega.

He served in the U.S. Army from 1985 until 1993, then joined the Texas National Guard before returning to Lawrence and joining the Kansas Guard. He has been a mechanic throughout his military career. It has been a job, he said, that has kept him out of some of the dangers that other soldiers face.

“I’ve been very fortunate,” He said.

Last year one of Company A’s own, Spec. Jessie Davila, of Greensburg, was killed in a bomb blast. O’Brien Jr. said he didn’t know Davila well, but the soldier’s death affected the entire unit.

“It was a wake-up call – that’s for sure,” he said. “It just showed how vulnerable we could be.”

O’Brien Jr. will retire from the Kansas Guard in March or April after 21 years in the military.

“I’m going to miss it, that’s for sure,” he said. “I’m going to miss the guys and the camaraderie. But I made a promise to my kids that this is it.”

Louise O’Brien said she is glad her son is ready to become a full-time civilian. She also worried about her husband when he served three tours in Vietnam with the Navy.

“I’m ready for it to stop,” she said. “Thank God they both made it.”