(Groton-AP, Feb. 28, 2004 8:00 PM) _ It's homecoming day in Groton.
About 200 soldiers from the 1109th Aviation
Classification Repair Activity Depot returned
home this afternoon to their families.
"It is like a dream that is finally coming true."
It was a long wait for this homecoming and most of the soldiers had not seen their family for over a year.
Signs and flags waved high as family members waited with anticipation for the 1109th to return home.
The crowd waited behind a yellow ribbon, which is the finish line for a year long tour of duty.
There was no measure for the power of an embrace for the soldiers.
"There are no words that can describe how I feel," says Spc. Murray Mowatt.
"I am just elated, I am just so elated. There are no words to express it.
There are no words. I am so thankful he is home, safe and sound," says Dianne Burns.
"There are a lot of mixed emotions. I don't know what to expect when I go back to work,
when ever I decide to do that. Just the joy of being home,
my family is all here. It is incredible ," says Maj. Jeff Burns.
The 1109th specializes in helicopter repair and maintenance.
Editor's note: Quincyan Geri Eaton, with help from Georgia Degitz,
wrote about her thoughts as her son was deployed to Iraq and returned home last week.
Homecoming: A mother's story Fears, tears ... and then joy for Quincyan whose son was deployed in Iraq
Great Story
Excerpt
Flags waving, posters and banners flying, we marched out of the airport.
Emotionally spent and relieved, I lagged behind the group.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man of Asian descent approach.
He reached out and touched me.
In a soft voice, he spoke, "Ma'am, are you the mother of that soldier?"
I replied, "Yes."
He said, "Thank you for this soldier. Because of him, we are free men."
I wanted to cry with pride and relief. Over this man's shoulder,
I saw Ed with his wife beside him, shaking another supporter's hand.
Nothing will ever compare to the pride I felt in my countrymen and son.
Cheers, tears greet heroes
170 members of National Guard unit come home to their families.
Susan Ryan of Montville waits with her son, Patrick Ryan, 15, for Shawn Ryan,
her husband and his father, to disembark from the bus at Groton-New London Airport in Groton
Saturday afternoon. Ryan is a member of the 1109th AVCRAD Connecticut National Guard.
The unit returned from debriefing in Fort Drum, N.Y.,
after serving almost a year abroad in Kuwait and Iraq.
Family members wave as buses pull up,
carrying the 1109th AVCRAD unit back home
from Fort Drum to Groton airport Saturday afternoon.
Staff Sgt. Thomas Barclay of South Killingly hugs his son,
Aleksander Barclay, 14, as he returns to Groton Saturday
after serving in Kuwait and Iraq for almost a year.
Taavi Barclay, left, also greets his father.
Nolan Liska, 2, of Voluntown hugs his father, Sgt. James Liska.