thedrifter
02-23-09, 06:21 AM
Reserve Marines welcomed home with hugs and tears
Posted: Feb 22, 2009 01:44 PM
By WHITNEY HOLMES
6 News Anchor/Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- Sunday morning, forty-nine Reserve Marines from Company D, 4th Combat Engineer Battalion were welcomed home from a seven month deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Arriving by the busload to the Knoxville Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Center, the Reserve Marines were greeted by hugs, cheers and tears of family members thrilled to see their fathers, sons, and husbands return home safely.
"You don't realize how excited you are but as the buses pull up and you just hear everybody around you and tears start coming down your cheeks," said Kelly Fall.
Fall says she has to keep touching her husband to believe he's really home.
Lance Corporal Denver Fall says some days in Iraq dragged on and he sometimes thought this day would never come.
"It's hard to put it in words really what you feel. It's been welling up and once we hit Tennessee soil and then pulled into parking lot and saw everybody here, it really is overwhelming," said LCpl Fall.
He says he'll be spending his first day back doing something simple he once took for granted before being deployed to a war zone.
"I'm just going to go home, relax, and sit on my couch," said LCpl Fall.
Most of the Reserve Marines will return to the jobs they had before they were deployed after a couple of days of demobilization.
They spent last week at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina being demobilized.
LCpl Fall's kids say they were able to speak with their dad while he was Iraq often.
Emily Fall says the house was empty without her father.
Her younger brother, Jordan Fall, says he is proud of his dad because he tries to protect his family and America.
Ellie
Posted: Feb 22, 2009 01:44 PM
By WHITNEY HOLMES
6 News Anchor/Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- Sunday morning, forty-nine Reserve Marines from Company D, 4th Combat Engineer Battalion were welcomed home from a seven month deployment to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Arriving by the busload to the Knoxville Navy and Marine Corps Reserve Center, the Reserve Marines were greeted by hugs, cheers and tears of family members thrilled to see their fathers, sons, and husbands return home safely.
"You don't realize how excited you are but as the buses pull up and you just hear everybody around you and tears start coming down your cheeks," said Kelly Fall.
Fall says she has to keep touching her husband to believe he's really home.
Lance Corporal Denver Fall says some days in Iraq dragged on and he sometimes thought this day would never come.
"It's hard to put it in words really what you feel. It's been welling up and once we hit Tennessee soil and then pulled into parking lot and saw everybody here, it really is overwhelming," said LCpl Fall.
He says he'll be spending his first day back doing something simple he once took for granted before being deployed to a war zone.
"I'm just going to go home, relax, and sit on my couch," said LCpl Fall.
Most of the Reserve Marines will return to the jobs they had before they were deployed after a couple of days of demobilization.
They spent last week at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina being demobilized.
LCpl Fall's kids say they were able to speak with their dad while he was Iraq often.
Emily Fall says the house was empty without her father.
Her younger brother, Jordan Fall, says he is proud of his dad because he tries to protect his family and America.
Ellie