About 25,000 people came to Baylor University's Floyd Casey Stadium on Saturday afternoon to welcome home about 2,500 members of the Texas Army National Guard's 56th Brigade Combat Team that has been serving in Iraq for nearly a year.
56th Brigade returns home in joyous ceremony
By Emily Ingram and Tim Woods Tribune-Herald staff writers
Sunday, December 11, 2005
It was an emotional homecoming as Spc. Rick Molina kissed and cradled his three-month-old son, Nicholas, while his wife and family looked on. Dressed in sand-colored fatigues, Molina held the baby whom he had left at two weeks old to return to Iraq.
Three months later, Molina, a member of the Texas Army National Guard's 56th Brigade Combat Team that recently returned from active duty in Iraq, was reunited on Saturday with the family he left in January 2005. The 25-year-old soldier was given two weeks leave to come home for Nicholas' birth, then had to leave the newborn and his wife to return to Iraq.
“The first thing I did when I got back to the States was kiss my son and kiss my wife,” Molina said. “Then, I had a big steak. No more Army food for me.”
Molina was one of over 3,000 soldiers from the 56th Brigade who deployed for Iraq Jan. 1, 2005. He was also one of approximately 2,500 to return Saturday in a welcome home ceremony at Baylor University's Floyd Casey Stadium.
Over a sea of American flags and banners, Gov. Rick Perry thanked the crowd of almost 25,000 for coming from across the state to cheer on the troops returning from more than 340 days in Iraq. Speaking to the soldiers on the field, he acknowledged the sacrifice of the soldiers and their families.
“I'm proud of the 56th Brigade,” Perry said. “On behalf of 22 million (Texans), I'd like to say thank you and welcome home. A year ago, we stood here hours before your deployment. Texas hasn't been the same without you, and now, after your deployment, the world won't be the same, thanks to you.”