Small town, big welcome: 171st returns to St. Pauls
http://news.fayetteville.net/articles/122/1/Small-town-big-welcome-171st-returns-to-St-Pauls/Page1.html
sharonda thomas
Live Life To The Fullest!!!!!!! By sharonda thomas
Published on 07/23/2008
Soldiers from the 171st Engineer Company salute during the national anthem at a welcome-home ceremony in St. Pauls on Tuesday. The soldiers recently returned from a yearlong deployment to Iraq.
Small town, big welcome
ST. PAULS — How do you say thank you to 100 National Guardsmen just home from Iraq? How do you repay them for a year away from their families and their jobs, for traversing 18,600 dangerous miles on 500 missions, for finding and destroying 130 roadside bombs?
How do you honor the parents of the one soldier who didn’t get to come home?
In St. Pauls, home to the National Guard’s 171st Engineer Company, you start with yellow ribbons.
Yellow ribbons hung from flagpoles and doorknobs, danced on railings and antennas.
Thank you for putting your life on the line. For standing up for the right, not the wrong. Thanks for the hours over on the battlefield. We’ve proudly waited for your return back home...
It’s been a year since they sent the guardsman of the 171st Engineer Company off to Iraq. It feels longer, Mayor Buddy Westbrook says.
It’s been three months since Pfc. Adam Lee Marion’s body returned alone. This town is ready to tell his family how it feels.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the soldiers of the 171st Engineer Company.”
The Bulldogs file in, all straight-backed and heads-held -high. The applause drowns out the band. They don’t seem to mind.
How do you honor the parents of the one soldier who didn’t get to come home?
In St. Pauls, home to the National Guard’s 171st Engineer Company, you start with yellow ribbons.
Yellow ribbons hung from flagpoles and doorknobs, danced on railings and antennas.
Thank you for putting your life on the line. For standing up for the right, not the wrong. Thanks for the hours over on the battlefield. We’ve proudly waited for your return back home...
It’s been a year since they sent the guardsman of the 171st Engineer Company off to Iraq. It feels longer, Mayor Buddy Westbrook says.
It’s been three months since Pfc. Adam Lee Marion’s body returned alone. This town is ready to tell his family how it feels.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the soldiers of the 171st Engineer Company.”
The Bulldogs file in, all straight-backed and heads-held -high. The applause drowns out the band. They don’t seem to mind.