GREER, S.C. (WSPA) — Just in time for Christmas, an Army reserve unit is back home after deployment to the Middle East.
Dozens of people gathered inside a cargo hangar at the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, counting down the minutes until their loved ones returned home from a 10-month deployment.
“[I’m] overjoyed. I’m just really, I’m just a ball of nerves right now,” said Megan Foster, a mother of a reservist.
“Our sons are coming home, and it’s been a long ten months for me,” said family member Angela Cothran. “So, glad to see him and I am going to give him biggest hug ever.”
More than 100 soldiers from the 323rd Engineer Company, a U.S. Army Reserve Unit, made the long journey home from the Middle East.
“Today is an incredible welcome home ceremony for our unit. We’ve been deployed to the [U.S. Central Command] region in the Middle East for the past ten months, and we just got home today. So just in time for Christmas,” said Unit Commander David Cline said. “[It was] a lot of travel, a lot of flying, a lot of, sleeping on the ground to get here. It’s a journey.”
The unit, made up of soldiers from the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama was stationed in Kuwait, but conducted missions across the region.
Cline told Nexstar’s 7NEWS it was the unit’s first deployment in over 10 years.
“We were operating in multiple countries in the middle east. We’re a route clearance unit, so we have very heavy equipment, heavy trucks. We also do construction, and we were in multiple countries across the whole region,” he added. “It’s a real honor to do what we did, and then to come home to this type of reception with our friends, family, loved ones. Just in time for Christmas.”
As for what the reservists plans are?
“[I will] go out to dinner, have a good time, catch up,” Foster said.
Family members said they plan to savor the holiday with their loved ones.
“Find out what all the little things that happened over there,” Cothran added, “And cherish this Christmas because maybe next Christmas, they may be deployed again. So, I’m really going to enjoy this one.”
The Spartanburg-based reserve unit operated alongside units from the Army Reserve, National Guard, and active-duty Army during their deployment.