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thedrifter
09-04-06, 06:46 PM
A joyous return for Marines
Friends, family welcome 86 home from duty in Iraq

Colin Atagi
The Desert Sun
September 4, 2006
Sherrie Steely's one-year wedding anniversary was on Aug. 27, and she celebrated by spending time with friends and enjoying a phone call with her husband.

It was fun, but she plans to make up for it right away now that her husband is back from Iraq with 85 other members of Combat Logistics Battalion 7, Seventh Marine Regiment. They returned to Twentynine Palms on Sunday after a six-month deployment.

"I'm so excited; I'm going to give him a big hug," the 19-year-old Roswell, N.M. wife said about an hour before her husband, Casey, arrived.

Sherrie Steely was one of at least 200 people who awaited the Marines' return Sunday. She was also one of a handful of people who held signs and shouted as the bus transporting the Marines passed by on its way to an armory.

The Marines were sent to Iraq to provide support for frontline troops. It was their job to make sure they had adequate food supplies and any paperwork was filed properly.

Crowd members wished the Marines could have gotten off the bus right away, but they understood it was necessary for them to return their weapons first.

"Are we ever going to get there," Lance Cpl. Casey Steely, 21, thought on his way home, he said.

Some girlfriends, wives and husbands of the Marines are used to loved ones being gone for so long. Although they're capable of living independently, it's still a joy for the Marines to come home, said 47-year-old Washington resident Jo Olson.

"It's good when (her husband) leaves, it's good when he's gone, it's better when he comes back," said Olson, whose husband, Navy Corpsman Jay Olson, came home.


Not everyone had a loved one to provide a hug. That's why there was a group of "Official Huggers," made up of Marines' wives.

"We try to make sure no one sneaks off by themselves," hugger Monica McBroom said.

But when the Marines finally got off the bus, there was no shortage of hugs and kisses. The celebration was complete with silly string and air horns.

"Comings are just like Christmas when you're 5," Jo Olson said.

Ellie