Sunday, Jul. 26, 2009

Navy officer returns from Kuwait to green yard

By John Trumbo, Herald staff writer

Navy Lt. Burke Jensen was pleased to see green when he drove up the driveway to his home in south Kennewick on Saturday.

It was a satisfying homecoming for the 33-year-old Jensen, who was away for 506 days, much of it on an Army mission in Kuwait.

When he left more than a year ago, the 21/2-acre property in Oak Hill Estates was a new home on barren land. On Saturday, he took his first look at what 60 community volunteers did last October to improve the place to satisfy the developer of the subdivision.

"It's how amazingly green it is, and the level of detail in the variety of plants, rocks and lights," Jensen said while inspecting the property.

The volunteers rolled out sod, shoveled rock and planted trees in a two-day blitz so that the property wouldn't be barren. Developer Chick Edwards had told Jensen last summer that the landscaping for the newly built home had to be completed as soon as possible, even though he'd been called up for overseas military service.

Jensen paid $7,000 to a landscaper to do the work, but it didn't get finished, and his wife Heidi wouldn't be around to keep the project on task.

She had just given birth to their son and would be spending the next year with her parents on the East Coast while he was in Kuwait. Their Kennewick home would remain vacant until his return.

That's when a Tri-Cities landscaper learned of their plight and offered to coordinate a community effort to finish the job.

"We've been thinking about how to show our appreciation," Jensen said while inspecting his new home and landscaping.

"We didn't ask for anything, and so much has been given," he added.

"Now that we're back we want to invite people who helped to come to an appreciation gathering 6 p.m. Wednesday for food, drink and music," he said.

Joining Jensen will be his parents, who helped him move from Denver, and his sister, Brooke. But his wife and son Douglas will be unable to make it because Heidi is pursing advanced studies in music at a college in New Jersey, where her parents live.

Jensen said he wants everyone who volunteered to know they are invited to Wednesday's gathering, especially landscaper Tim Montgomery, who led the volunteer effort, and Jensen's co-workers at Energy Northwest, who helped keep an eye on the vacant home during the past nine months.

Jensen said everyone who volunteered should send an e-mail to his sister, bmjjensen@yahoo.com, to say whether or not they can attend. A second gathering may be scheduled if necessary, depending on how many can attend, he said.

His arrival home ended three weeks of travel. He left Kuwait and reached Washington, D.C., on July 4, then stopped in Los Angeles and Seattle for debriefings.

He then went to Denver for a family gathering to celebrate his son's first birthday before packing personal possessions and pets for the drive to Kennewick.

-- John Trumbo: 582-1529; jtrumbo@tricity herald.com