DECATUR - Dressed in blue jeans while astride his riding lawn mower, Daniel Wentworth was the picture of serenity earlier this week.

It was in stark contrast to the flight uniform Sgt. Daniel Wentworth was wearing just days earlier.

The National Guardsman is on leave for two weeks from Iraq, where he's been deployed since May.

Wentworth serves as the crew chief on a Blackhawk helicopter, manning the gun and making repairs on the choppers that transport personnel and escorts vehicles through the area around Tallil, west of Basrah. It is his first deployment, and the first time he's ever been overseas in his life.

"There's no symmetry," Wentworth said. "There are no roads that run east-west like we have here. All the roads here (in Illinois) run one mile by one mile, but there it's 'Hey, I'm going to put a building here.'"

Returning stateside threw the other differences into sharp relief.

"Everything over there - vehicles, buildings - is tan," Wentworth said. "When I got back here, everything was green, and so much brighter. It was raining when the plane landed in Bloomington, and the gentleman next to me said 'Sorry it couldn't be better weather,' and I said 'That's fine, I haven't seen rain in months.' "

For more, see Saturday's Herald & Review.