The 81 sun-tanned soldiers from the Westbrook armory of the 133rd Engineer Battalion stood at attention in the gymnasium of Westbrook High School dressed in their desert fatigues. They faced the podium and the wall. To their backs the gymnasium was crowded with families and friends holding signs and waiting in nervous anticipation.

Minutes before, when the soldiers had arrived outside, the crowd had let out a roar. But still they had to wait: As one Army official told them, the Army does things in a certain manner. Eventually the crowd became impatient and began chanting, “Bring them in. Bring them in.” And finally they did.

The soldiers and crowd stood silent while “The Star-Spangled Banner” was sung. As the last note faded away cheers, whistles and applause erupted from the crowd. An officer stepped to the podium to say a few words of praise and introduce the soldiers to the waiting masses.

“About Face!” The soldiers turned and faced the crowd in one fluid motion. The air was again filled with cheers. The faces were dark, some were lined with age, some were young, some were stolid, some were grinning.

One soldier peered out over the crowd scanning for a familiar face. When he spotted one he nodded and his face split wide open with a smile. Another “About Face” order was quickly given and the soldiers turned their backs on the crowd. The reunion would have to wait a few minutes more.

A second officer stepped up to the podium.

“The first thing I want to say is thanks for being here, it means the world. The next thing I want to say is ‘Company Dismissed!'”

More than a year after the troops left for Fort Drum and then Iraq, came the moment that everyone in the room had been waiting for.

At long last

The soldiers turned around and were met with a wave of people rushing toward them. Children jumped in their parents’ arms and wives cried while hugging their husbands. Others stood solemnly with their arms around each other and just looked at all that was happening all around them, just feeling happy to be back in Maine.

The Guard members have the next three months off, free to spend as much time as they want catching up and spending time with their families. Everyone is excited, but the challenges of reentering civilian and family life still lay ahead. For now, they are just happy to be home.

“It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” said Linda Ceaser, the wife of First Sgt. Phil Ceaser, about her husband’s return home to Scarborough. “It’s like all the families, you worry about them every second of every day.”

Linda said she was excited to see her husband again and said that she is expecting there will be some adjustment to home life once he gets back, but for now having her husband back is a relief.

“I’m just happy to have him out of Iraq, ” she added.

Becki Wellman of Scarborough waited with her family and her 1-year-old son Hayden. When the soldiers were dismissed she couldn’t wait any longer.

“I held my breath for a second, then just started crying,” she said.

Her husband, Sgt. Dean Wellman, is a teacher in Westbrook and met many of his friends and colleagues at the reunion. Becki stood there with Hayden in her arms watching Dean as he tried to talk to several people at once.

“I want someone to pinch me so I know this is real. … I’m so relieved, I’m so glad to have him back,” Becki said.

The 548 members of the 133rd Engineer Battalion of the Maine Army National Guard began arriving at Fort Drum, N.Y., late last week. The battalion was the largest Maine National Guard deployment since World War II. They left home in January 2004 and spent more than a year in Iraq.

The unit, which specializes in construction, was based in Mosul, in northern Iraq, where they built new schools, roads and other infrastructure. Soldiers in the 133rd earned 35 Bronze Stars and 42 Purple Hearts and the battalion has been nominated for a Meritorious Unit award, officials said.

Three members of the unit were killed during the deployment, including two who died Dec. 21 when a suicide bomber attacked a dining hall.

More on the way

Some families stayed home Wednesday, because their loved ones weren’t on the first convoy of buses. The Headquarters Support Company, based in Portland, is slated to return Friday.

Carolyn Bragg of Scarborough and her children, Rebecca, 12, and Benjamin, 8, must wait until then to see their husband and father, Staff Sgt. Stephen Bragg.

He called her last week “right in the middle of the night” – or rather, in the wee hours of Thursday morning – to say he was in the U.S. After the initial hoopla of arrival in Maine, the family will be “laying low,” Carolyn said. “He just really wants to spend time at home.”

Stephen, who left home Jan. 6, 2004, is ready to come home. “He said he wished it could be sooner,” Carolyn said. He was home in September for a two-week leave, but it has been a long haul. “We’re lucky to have a lot of friends and family close by,” Carolyn said.

Bring apart has been hard. Stephen was on a lot of convoys away from the main base. “There were times when we couldn’t talk,” she said. Those were the hardest. When he was on the base, though, they were able to communicate “not so much on the phone, but definitely on the computer,” first by e-mail and then by instant-messaging.

“I’ve been talking to him quite a bit since he’s been in New York,” Carolyn said with a laugh.

Stephen owns his own business, a medical billing company whose employees have kept things going in his absence, but they are also ready to have the boss back, she said. At home, she plans to make all kinds of meals – his various favorite dishes.

“In the coming days, I’ll probably be doing a lot of cooking, which I’m happy to do,” she said. She’ll let Stephen entertain the kids while she cooks – she’s sure he won’t mind.

Sheila Szafran of South Portland, whose son Spc. Adam Szafran is in the headquarters support unit, said she got a call Thursday on her cell phone. She was at the doctor when Adam told her, “Mom, I’m in Ireland.”

He’s coming back to Maine Friday, and his mom has “a lot of mixed emotions.” She’s happy to see him, of course, but also has “a little anxiety – how are they going to be” after so much time away at war.

Adam was the general manager at Bally Total Fitness on Marginal Way in Portland before he left. Federal law requires his employer to give him a substantially similar job upon his return, but that location is Bally’s only one in Maine, Sheila said. Adam may be offered a job out of state.

But in the short term, there will be celebrations. Friends and family from as far away as Connecticut and Massachusetts are coming to help welcome Szafran home.

“It’s – hopefully – a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Sheila said. “We just hope they get in on time.”

That time leaves Rusty Morrison of Scarborough two more days to get a mechanic to inspect the black Jeep Wrangler that sits in her driveway. It belongs to her son, Spc. Peter Morrison, and she wants it to be ready for the road when he arrives home from Fort Drum on Friday.

“I guess that’s the excitement, or that’s how it’s channeling itself … gotta get the car on the road,” said Rusty, “It’s easier to concentrate on that, it’s a mission.”

Besides Peter’s car, Rusty has also taken care of his big furry black and brown dog, Coltrane, for the past year.

Now that he’s back on U.S. soil Rusty says the heightened awareness she has felt for the past year is subsiding. Peter will board a bus with other members of the 133rd Friday morning and head back to Maine. Rusty says she won’t be fully relieved until she sees him step off that bus. Until then she’s at a loss for how to pass the time.

“I think I’ll just wait, I don’t know what else to do.”

For the future, Rusty is not sure what her son will do. Though she doesn’t want to see him deployed again, she said she hopes he stays in the Guard.

“Because it’s a good thing,” Rusty said, “but I certainly wouldn’t blame him if he wanted to get out.”

Staff Writer Jeff Inglis contributed to this report.

Sgt. Ray Dion of Waterboro hoists the flagFirst Sgt. Phil and Linda Ceaser133rd Engineer Battalion homecomingWestbrook High School gym133rd Engineer Battalion homecoming133rd Engineer Battalion homecoming133rd Engineer Battalion homecoming133rd Engineer Battalion homecomingtest

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