Clutching a bunch of daffodils and one corner of a “Welcome Home” poster, Kimberly Orloff wore a nervous grin.

As soldier after soldier filed past to whoops, whistles and wild applause, she stood against a wall at the international terminal of BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport last Saturday, with her two young daughters, their friends and a throng of strangers.
 
Orloff and her girls, who live in Columbia, flashed quick smiles at the constant stream of unsung heroes walking by, but their eyes darted from person to person in search of one face.
 
A soldier made his way past the well-wishers and camera flashes, spied the name on their sign and circled back around the cordoned-off walkway.
 
“Conrad must be 10 minutes behind me,” he yelled out to Orloff. “He’s all the way at the back of the plane.”

Finally, at about 1 p.m., Commander Conrad Orloff, a Navy reservist who was embedded with the U.S. Army in Iraq, walked through the glass double-door.

He kissed his wife and scooped up Emma, 6, and Julia, 11.
 
Their loving reunion played out before an exuberant contingent of a half-dozen students from Longfellow Nursery School, holding a sign that read, “LNS Welcomes Home Cdr. Orloff.” Longfellow is the nursery where “Miss Kimberly,” as the children call Kimberly Orloff, teaches, and the children were there to welcome their teacher’s husband home.

Anxious for homecoming

For the Orloffs, who met on a blind date when he was attending the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, it’s been rough going since December 2007. That’s when Conrad received what he calls “an early Christmas gift” from the Navy reserves — the news that he would soon be deployed to Baghdad.

While the Harper’s Choice couple managed to rendezvous in Hawaii this past December for a brief vacation, the  family has struggled with the 15-month separation. They relied on the support of many friends, including families from  the nursery school where Kimberly works.

“The girls have really, really missed him,” she said of her daughters. “It was hard for the girls to understand why he was gone.”
   
Conrad said he was so anxious to return to his family that he hadn’t slept for two days before shipping out.
 
“This tour was definitely an experience,” said Orloff, who will return to his engineering job at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel. “We worked to prevent sectarian violence 20 hours a day, seven days a week with no let-up.”

“The country is taking its first tentative steps and nicely telling us, ‘Thank you, but it’s time for you to leave.’ ”

A show of appreciation

It was at the nursery where Kimberly Orloff met parents Anne and Scott Brown.

The Browns, of Hickory Ridge, are volunteers with Operation Welcome Home-Maryland, whose members come to the airport at all hours and as often as 20 times a month to welcome home returning military personnel, most of whom they don’t even know.

It was Scott Brown, whose 3-year-old daughter Elizabeth is one of Miss Kimberly’s students, who hatched the plan to greet Conrad at the airport.

“The biggest regret I have in life is not serving my country,” said Brown, a stay-at-home dad who has become the self-anointed “King of Play-dates” since losing his job as a facility manager when his company downsized about a year ago.

The Hickory Ridge resident said his father is a retired colonel who tried to talk him into enlisting, “but I was a stupid 18-year-old who thought he knew better.”

Nowadays, he drives a bright red Ford Explorer decorated with flags and patriotic sayings, and shows up at BWI as part of the regular committee that cheers on the 4,000 soldiers that pass through the airport each month.

“The smile it brings to their faces is tremendous,” Brown said, “and I guarantee you’ll see tears in a lot of their eyes.

“No matter how you feel about the war, we’re over there and these soldiers are protecting our rights,” he added. “It’s got to be a top priority for America to show its appreciation.”

Upon his arrival last Saturday, Conrad Orloff, 39, called the greeting a “moving experience.”

“It’s a big deal,” he said. “To see this phalanx of people that we don’t know turns out to be a pretty moving experience.”

---

user comments (3)

user bettyevans says...

My name is Betty Evans and I am a team leader for Operation Welcome Home. I would truely like to thank the people of Howard County that have done such a great job of supporting out troops and all the participation we have received from our county at OWH. I have been with OWH from the beginning. The HC support is growing. Thank you Howard County!

Posted 9:59 AM, 04.09.09 | Permalink

user jtysk01 says...

There are two things I know about CDR Conrad Orloff: - never run out of ham when he is waiting in the dinner line. - never make fun of Hannah Montana when in his presence.

Posted 5:12 PM, 04.09.09 | Permalink

user army101ab says...

I am excited to see Howard County is recognizing troops now...I am a Wilde Lake High School Grad of 2006 and currently in Afghanistan serving a year tour. So im glad to see this happening.

Posted 11:43 AM, 04.18.09 | Permalink