Home for Christmas? Some soldiers get home for the holidays, but not many

Lt. Col. Spyros Spanos heard last month that he might be able to come home for a few weeks in December. Spyros, a member of the Connecticut National Guard who has been stationed in western Afghanistan since July, told his wife, but not their two sons.

So his wife, Rita Provatas, told their two sons on Dec. 12 that she had to go to Providence overnight on business. She actually was picking up Spanos from the airport.