Home sweet home

LOCKE - The first thing Denise Weir does at work every morning is cross off another square on her calendar, counting down the days until her daughter, Heather Pierce, arrives home from her deployment in Iraq.

This week her calendar is blank.

Pierce is on her 18-day leave from duty as a sergeant with the U.S. Army's 3rd Sustainment Brigade in Tikrit, where she has been deployed since July.