Spc. Brian Wike of Altoona, a member of the 56th Stryker Brigade of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, couldn't take his eyes off his girl when he got off the bus at the Frankstown Armory on a perfect sunny August day.
As he held Leah, only 11 months old, in his arms, he explained she was born to him and his wife just three days before he began training for a deployment near Baghdad.
As two Fullington Trailways buses loaded with soldiers came off Interstate 99 onto Fairway Drive, a huge roar ensued.
About 100 members of Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 112th Infantry, were home at last.
The greeting the Altoona soldiers received from about 400 to 500 family and friends brought smiles and tears to their faces.
Soldiers from Altoona and Huntingdon arrived at Fort Dix, N.J., for demobilization before arriving under police and fire escorts.
Staff Sgt. Jason Kidd of Lakemont and his wife, Carrie, tearfully held each other for a long, long time and then he turned to his newborn, Andrew, 4 months old, and looked at him as if he was viewing a miracle.
As he was holding Andrew, he hugged and spoke to his son, Nathan, 12.
"I want to go home, sit down and relax with my family," Kidd said.
Sgt. John Cobaugh of Johnstown was coming home after his third deployment.
He was greeted by his dad, John Sr., a veteran himself.
He laughed when asked what he wanted to do when he got home.
"Drink a cold one," he said.
It was good, he said, to breath fresh air instead of sand.
Cobaugh had been on active duty for six years and been a member of the National Guard for 15 years.
Was he done after three deployments?
"Probably not," he said.
He has a few years to go before retirement, and, he said, he intends to stay in the Guard.
The returning soldiers also were greeted by one of their own, Spc. Carla Bigelow of Tyrone, a member of a National Guard unit in Clearfield.
She remembered the one member of Bravo Company who came home in June, Spc. Chad A. Edmundson, 20, of Williamsburg. He was killed May 27 by a roadside bomb near Abu Ghraib. She knew Edmundson well.
He was a good kid and an outstanding soldier, Bigelow said.
"He will definitely be missed and he will never be forgotten," she said.
She knows Roy and Sherry Edmundson, Chad's parents, who were present as the local unit arrived.
The soldiers of Edmundson's unit also remembered.
Capt. Jason Hoffman of York, Bravo Company's commander, said Edmundson was a "great soldier."
"His community is rightly proud of him," Hoffman said.
The feeling of coming home, said Hoffman, is "undescribable."
Hoffman said the men of Bravo Company "did great work."
He was preparing to return home to his fiancee, he said, and to "big hugs."
In Huntingdon, county residents lined the streets downtown Monday night for a "Welcome Home" parade.
Led by every volunteer fire company in the county, the soldiers of Company A, 2nd Battalion, 112th Infantry, were greeted with cheers, tears, salutes and then, once at the Huntingdon Armory, hugs and kisses from family members.
"This is unbelievable," Capt. Chris Wilson, company commander, said. "We all appreciate what went on here tonight."
Huntingdon Mayor Foster Ulrich said it was a great turnout by the citizens.
"We really appreciate all the things these men have done," Ulrich said.
A welcome home party for the troops will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 22 in downtown Huntingdon, Ulrich said.
Mirror Staff Writer Phil Ray is at 946-7468.
Jeff Gill contributed to this story.
