Updated: 7/30/2009 12:20:41 PM
By Jaime Sarrio, The Tennessean
As the Tennessee National Guard troops walked single file off the Boeing 737 and onto the tarmac, excited family members waved flags and cheered from behind a roped-off area.
Judy Smith yelled her husband's name - "Chris! Chris!" - and jumped up and down until finally she couldn't restrain herself. She jumped over the rope and plowed straight into her husband, Staff Sgt. Chris Smith. Others soon followed.
"Everyone wasn't coming so I figured I'd start this," she said after putting her feet back on the ground and wiping tears from behind her sunglasses.
After a yearlong deployment in Iraq, 72 soldiers of the 30th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion returned home Wednesday, where they were greeted by more than 100 family members and supporters at Smyrna Airport in Rutherford County.
According to Staff Sgt. Smith of Bon Aqua, it took the battalion 10 days and 15 canceled flights to get home.
"I am so relieved," he said. "It's been a long ordeal."
About 2,000 Tennessee National Guard troops are currently deployed, and there are about 14,000 soldiers in the Guard statewide, said spokesman Sgt. Randy Harris.
The homecoming is one of many planned over the next few months, Harris said, with 13 soldiers stationed in Africa expected back next week and an additional 150 to 200 soldiers coming home in the fall.
She saw son from plane
Maj. Beth Sharp had to put on her sunglasses to hide her tears when she spotted son Alex, 9, from the airplane window.
While she was gone, she missed birthdays, holidays, loose teeth and a football championship. Alex stayed with his grandparents in Knoxville, and the two kept in touch with video chats, e-mail and letters.
"I've been waiting for this moment for a year and a half," she said. "The hardest part was being away from him."
While in Iraq, the 30th supervised maintenance, transportation and supplies. But as they left the desert climate and headed toward the land of Starbucks, Target and McDonald's, each soldier envisioned what they would eat and drink.
"I am going to drink me some beer," said Nashville resident Sgt. Lathell Alexander, who favors Bud Light. "I'm just as happy as happy can be."
Family members greeted soldiers with homemade signs as well as printed, glossy color posters that said things like "Welcome Home Daddy."
The hero's welcome was a change for Master Sgt. Dennis Proctor who fought in Vietnam from 1971-72 and was deployed again at age 59 with the Guard.
"When I came home it was just my immediate family, there was no big hoorah," said Proctor, who was known as "Pops" by the younger troops in Iraq. "My mother-in-law and my sister-in-law are here. I heard them holler my name."
