Thanksgiving at home with his family in Westbrook will be special this year for Sgt. Leon Humiston after going to war with Company B and then witnessing the destruction of Hurricane Katrina.

Humiston, a 23-year veteran of the Maine Army National Guard, said he has a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. This year, in particular, he’s thankful for the opportunity to be with his family.

After returning from Iraq and Louisiana, Humiston said he has a new perspective on life. He said many people allow unimportant things in their lives to bother them. But many of those people still have their families, which is something to be truly thankful for.

After missing dinner on Thanksgiving Day last year, Humiston will eat a traditional turkey dinner with his wife, Sheila, and their daughter Amber Humiston and his mother-in-law, Claudia Herrick. But there’ll be one missing at the family table. Humiston’s father-in-law, Stephen Herrick, passed away in July.

With Humiston home on leave last year in November from war in Iraq, the five celebrated the holidays early with a combined Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. While returning to Iraq for duty, Humiston was delayed in Atlanta for five days. He arrived in Mosul, Iraq, on Thanksgiving Day after the mess tent had closed for the night.

This year, the Humiston family will have a turkey dinner with sweet potatoes, squash, celery and all the fixings. There’ll be mincemeat pie, Humiston’s favorite.

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His 13-year old daughter, an eighth-grade student at Wescott Junior High School, will help her mom prepare for Thanksgiving Day. “I picked out the turkey,” she said, naming it “Elmo.”

Humiston will enjoy the day at home after he and 30 others from Company B brightened the holiday for residents of Bogalusa, La., about 20 miles from New Orleans. The soldiers returned home on Oct. 28 after a month of helping cleanup damage from Hurricane Katrina in parks and at a historic fairgrounds.

Thank you cards from children of Annunciation Catholic School in Bogalusa are displayed in a case at the Company B armory on Stroudwater Street. And Bogalusa city officials gave Company B a street banner that now hangs from the rafters in the armory.

Company B troops first provided security for the Red Cross for a week when they arrived in Bogalusa. Then they went about the task of cleaning up debris and trees that had damaged public buildings and parks.

Company B, part of Maine’s 133rd Engineer Battalion, cleared away fallen trees in a park where the citizens have an annual Christmas fair. They restored running water to a park fountain that hadn’t worked even before Katrina slammed the area.

Humiston was a supervisor, but he also swung a hammer. At the Franklin Fairgrounds, they rebuilt stables and repaired structures built in the 1800s. He said some animals were running loose, and a potbelly pig came up to them.

With utility lines down, generators provided power, and they completed their mission at the fairgrounds in four days. Humiston restored a historic hand-carved fairgrounds sign. “They were able to open for the fair,” Humiston said.

In the residential area, he said there were entire streets with blue tarps covering what was left of homes. He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency put on the tarps. “It was the blue tarp condominium area,” Humiston said. “They lost their houses and their cars. But they have each other.”

In Bogalusa, thankful citizens brought Company B troops Cajun food including “gator” meat. Humiston said alligator tasted like chicken. “The people were tremendous,” he said.

He called Cajun food spicy. “Everything is hot sauce. It was a cultural experience,” Humiston said.

Company B troops lived in an armory and a local vendor provided meals. “Every breakfast was grits, eggs, and kielbasa,” he said.

“You gotta love grits,” he said.

Inmates from a local prison in Louisiana volunteered to help and worked in the parks. The Bogalusa people were upset that their National Guard troops, which had been deployed further south, weren’t there. “They’re pride was hurt. They didn’t want to ask,” he said.

Humiston said Bogalusa people were discouraged. He wished they could have stayed longer in Bogalusa. “To see the smiles on faces, we’ve been rewarded,” he said.

They’ve seen those smiles before. In Iraq, Company B worked in Northern Iraq near the Turkey border. “The Kurds loved us,” he said.

He said insurgents killed some of the Iraqis who worked on the base at Mosul. “All they were trying to do was support their families,” he said.

Humiston recalled the suicide bomber blast in a mess tent around Christmas last year in Mosul, which killed 22. More than 70 others were injured, including Staff Sgt. Harold Freeman Jr. of Gorham and Sgt. Christopher Rushlau of Portland. Manning a post, Humiston was 20 minutes late for chow or he would have been in the tent.

A communications man, Humiston did his job, working the radios in the aftermath of the explosion. He made sure everyone in Company B was accounted for and relayed information, using code, about the injured to Sgt. Brian Dill and their commanding officer. But Humiston wanted to be aiding the wounded and carrying stretchers.

“That part will eat at me for a while,” he said.

After Iraq and seeing the Katrina catastrophe at home, Humiston said he has seen the change in his fellow soldiers. He said they have developed more patience and if something goes wrong they correct it and drive on.

While deployed in Iraq, Humiston was able to stay in touch with his family by computer, telephone and Web cam. They saw each other open their Christmas gifts last year. “It was different. I could see him being happy, but he wasn’t with us,” his daughter said.

After the Web cam went off, she and her mom cried.

Humiston, a graduate of South Portland High School in 1982, was sent to Bangor after the events of Sept. 11, 2001. He remembered the words of a National Guard officer who spoke to the troops about uncertain future events. “Suck it up and deal with it,” said Humiston, recalling the message. “That’s the mentality I’ve had and my wife has.”

“It’s going to be a good Thanksgiving,” he said.

Sgt. Leon Humiston and his daughter, Amber, 13, review photos on his laptop of Hurricane Katrina damage.(Humiston family) – Sgt. Leon Humiston will be with his family on Thanksgiving this year. In the family photo are his wife, Sheila, and their daughter, Amber, and Sheila’s mom, Claudia Herrick.(Humiston 2) – Sgt. Leon Humiston with his daughter, Amber, who penned the message on a whiteboard on Saturday at the Company B armory on Stroudwater Street.

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