Christmas Homecoming

Today the soldiers of the 11th Signal Brigade returned home from Iraq. What an awesome Christmas present for their families! The military always does a lot of pomp and circumstance for any celebration and of course, this was no exception. The building where I work is next to the road that goes from the airfield to the field house where the soldiers would be reunited with their families. The people in my building who were working today were asked to stand along the road and wave flags, yellow ribbons, and "Welcome Home" signs as the soldiers were bused to the field house. However, as with anything in the military, everything is always late. We were asked to stand outside by 10:45. By 11:15 they still hadn't passed by. Everyone was getting pretty punchy by that time, so someone in the crowd decided to do some practice cheering for passersby. A man in a van got a great cheer as he drove down the road. He got so confused, he stopped in the middle of the road, then slowly inched forward. A construction worker got another great cheer. The garbage man....a Channel 4 News van (too bad they didn't have their cameras going)....a random city bus.... It was pretty funny. Finally we heard the police and firetruck sirens blazing. After a few minutes, they passed us, followed by 50 Harleys from the local Harley Davidson Club. Each of the motorcycles had large American Flags waving behind them. It was really impressive. Finally, the buses full of the soldiers passed by. We waved and shouted and waved our flags, ribbons, and signs. It was really fun and very emotional. I wish I knew about this before I came to work today so I could have brought my camera and took pictures of the impressive site.

Welcome home, heroes! And Merry Christmas!!