Hugs, tears greet returning guard membershttp://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/newfullstory.asp?ID=103118Posted Thursday, April 20 at 4:30 AM
48th Hugs, tears greet returning guard members
By The Associated Press
FORT STEWART -
Greeted by a cool night breeze and soft grass beneath his boots, Sgt. Terry McCartney
of Dahlonega wrapped his wife in a big bear hug as tears poured down a face browned
by a year in the Iraqi desert.
A tough year at war hadn't made the 48-year-old Georgia National Guardsman too tough to cry.
"I tried not to, but I did," said McCartney, who left his family and his civilian job
as a security guard to deploy with Georgia's 48th Infantry Brigade last May.
"It feels so good. It feels wonderful."The 48th Brigade sent 4,300 citizen-soldiers to Iraq in the largest deployment
of the Georgia National Guard since World War II.
The first 291 Georgia troops arrived at Fort Stewart late Wednesday to a raucous
homecoming of loved one waving American flags and homemade banners.
Standing at a podium between the soldiers in formation and their eager families
in the parade ground bleachers, Gov. Sonny Perdue kept formalities mercifully brief.
"Get ready for the shortest political speech you've ever heard," Perdue said.
"Welcome home! We love you."
With that, the guardsmen rushed into the arms of cheering parents, relieved wives,
newborn babies and blushing fiancees.Tina Maynor rekindled her romance with Sgt. Tom Denny, 38, of Gainesville just a week
before he deployed. It had been 16 years since they last dated.
In a phone call from Iraq over the summer, he proposed.
"I said, `You'll have to be here to ask me,'" said Maynor, 37.
"`If you do that, I'll say yes.'"
Denny, a full-time guardsmen, acknowledged he's got "a lot of dating" to catch up on.
"And she's got an engagement ring coming, too," he said.
The returning troops belonged to A and C Companies of the 1st Battalion,
121st Infantry Regiment, based in Lawrenceville and Gainesville.
About 130 troops from one of the 48th Brigade's out-of-state units,
the 133rd Signal Company from Illinois, :loveya:
was the first group to arrive home shortly after midnight Tuesday.
The 48th Brigade has more than 2,500 citizen-soldiers from Georgia, augmented
by nearly 2,000 troops from Alabama, Illinois,
Maryland, Missouri, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico.The remainder of the 48th Brigade is expected home by mid-May, said Jim Driscoll,
a spokesman for the Georgia National Guard.
"They'll be coming in every couple of days for the next three to four weeks,"
Driscoll said Wednesday.
"Once they're here they will be at Fort Stewart for six or seven days
before returning to their hometown armories."Nanette Merritt of Decatur said she was relieved so many of the guardsmen
- including her son, 26-year-old Spc. Shay Merritt - were coming home alive.
The 48th Brigade had 26 soldiers killed in Iraq, and lost 11 of them
in an 11-day period last summer."You grieve for the families and you actually feel guilty that it's not your son,"
Merritt said.
For Shay Merritt, who worked as a package sorter for UPS before he was called
to active duty last year, Wednesday marked the first time he'd seen his 2-month-old son,
Joshua, since he came home on leave for the birth in February.
"He looks a lot different from when I left him," Merritt said,
looking at his son's thick black hair. "He has a lot more hair than his daddy."
As they return to their normal lives, the citizen-soldiers have little doubt
a year at war has changed them.Spc. Matthew Thomas, 21, of Snellville has been in the Georgia Guard since 2001.
But weekend drills every month, and the six months of training the 48th Brigade
underwent before deploying, can't compare to his experiences in Iraq.
"I have more respect for life in general," Thomas said.
"I gained a lot more discipline. I just grew up."
His mother, Susan Thomas, said she could already tell her son was different
20 minutes after she greeted him.
"His eyes are different. There's more behind them," she said.
"They saw too much. They did too much," she said. "But they were determined.
They watched each other's backs and did what they had to do.":loveya:
WELCOME HOME!!!!!!!!:) :toast: :yourock: :applause: :patriot: :applause:
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