Spec. Clinton Brice

“My boy’s back home from Afghanistan,” said Sandra Brice, of Lehigh, after she and the family traveled to Crystal River near Ocala over the weekend to meet up with their boy, now a man, Specialist Clinton Brice, 23, who is an MP with the 690th Military Police Battalion, Florida Army National Guard.

Brice has been in Afghanistan with around 150 of his buddies for the past year, and getting home for a while is a great vacation.

Mom Brice as she is called said last week that she couldn’t wait for the weekend to get here so they could jump in the car and go up and bring him back home.

“They had a big party there at the unit in Crystal River and there were lots of families there, all hugging and all crying when they saw their boys coming home. It was a great day, a really great day for us,” Mom Brice said.

Clinton is not originally from Lehigh but his family moved here from Hollywood Florida, near Fort Lauderdale.

Sandra Brice

“When he came home for a short leave, he really liked Lehigh, like we all do,” Mom Brice said. “It’s a nice community, nothing like over on the east coast. We love the peace and quiet on our street.”

Over the past year, Clinton has kept in touch with his family as much as he could. Mom Brice said the time schedules are different and it was difficult sometimes to get to talk to him.

“But it made no difference if it was in the middle of the night. Just to hear his voice was great for the heart,” she said.

Some in the family had also used Skpye, the free computer Internet program where people can talk to one another and see each other on the computer monitor.

“That is a really great way to keep up with somebody,” Mom Brice said.

Family with high school photo: Sandra Brice, left, and her daughter, Sandra Brice, who live in Lehigh, hold a high school photo of Specialist Clinton Brice, who was to come to Lehigh this past weekend for leave after spending a year in Afghanistan. Photo by Mel Toadvine

Specialist Brice joined the Florida Army National Guard in June of 2006 and according to Mom Brice, he signed up for eight years,.

“I think he is going to re-up,” she said. He loves his friends in his unit and they are all very close.“

Clinton’s not sure how long he is going to be home, maybe a month or more, or for a week or so.

“Some of us may be sent to Alaska,” he told Mom Brice. “And some may be going back to Afghanistan.“

“I know that he may choose to go back for another tour. He enjoys his service to his country and we are so very proud of him,” Mom Brice said.

Clinton’s name is a very familiar one at the First Congregational Church on Leeland Heights Blvd. That’s where his family back here attends church and Mom Brice volunteers as a cook and often helps to give away bread.

She said that Clinton had often told the family that some of the men in his unit didn’t get packages and letters from back home.

Well that broke Mom Brice’s heart, so she set about with the rest of the family, her daughter, and grandchildren, who all live with her, to send a big box of “stuff” every few months.

“We sent a lot of things so he could share them with his buddies,” she said. “And the members of the church have been very gracious, too,” she said. “I often sent him enough cake to feed all his buddies,” she laughed.

Pastor Deb Frysinger, the pastor of First Congregational Church, said having Clinton home in Lehigh was really wonderful and she was looking for him to come to church on Sunday.

Mom Brice said they had a “military box” set up in the church from time to time and members of the church would drop in all kinds of things from tooth brushes to items that every soldier needs when he is far away fighting a war.

If he does decide to not rejoin the Florida Army National Guard when his time is up, he says he is interested in being a correctional officer in private life. The training and the work he had done in the war in Afghanistan will make him an ideal candidate for such a position.

Mom Brice says it is up to him. He knows that if he makes the Army his career, it will help financially when he retires. It will be his decision and he will make the right one,” she said.

Mom Brice says he has told her some really interesting stories about the work he has done in Afghanistan and he has told her of some things he would rather forget, things that he has seen the Afghanistan Army do to the enemy after they had been captured.

This past Halloween, Mom Brice said the family sent him a big box of candy and books and other essentials.

“The box weighed 42 pounds. We had Kool Aid in the box they can mix with the water for a better tasting drink,” she said. “We bought it at the Publix and when the manager heard what we were doing, he gave us $10 of his own money to buy more candy for the soldiers,” she said.

“My boy isn’t very tall, but he can take care of himself. He’s four foot, 11 inches tall, about as tall as I am, “she laughed.

She is a retired customer service worker in Broward Health Systems in Ft. Lauderdale, before she moved to Lehigh.

Why Lehigh? She said she had a granddaughter living here and she invited us to come over and give it a look.

“We liked Lehigh and decided to leave the east coast. Since she has been here she has become active in Pastor Deb’s church.

“Clinton knows of the dangers in Afghanistan. He lost a buddy when an explosive device went off and killed him. That loss really hurt him, but like he says he and his unit have a job to do and that is why they were in Afghanistan.“

Mom Brice and her daughter, Sandra Bride and her children are spending all the time they can this week with Clinton.

And for him, he says it is a wonderful reunion to be with family for a while.

“If they want me to return to Afghanistan, then I will be glad to go back,” he said.

“I’m really proud of that boy,” Mom Brice said. “He’s the best.“