Joy comes home to N.H. from Iraq front

CONCORD, N.H. -- Friends and relatives cheered yesterday as more than 330 soldiers from two New Hampshire Army National Guard units returned from yearlong deployments in Iraq.

Their morning and afternoon ceremonies were among the largest Guard homecomings so far in February, a month bringing the return of about 800 guardsmen overall.

''It's great to be home," said Sergeant Richard Wiltshire of Barnstead, who returned to the waiting arms of his girlfriend, Shannon Benoit.

His return came just two months after he briefly visited home in December for leave, a time he called difficult.

''It's harder coming back knowing you have to turn around and go back again," he said.

His Manchester-based unit, Charlie Company Third, of the 172d Infantry Regiment, had deployed about 180 Guard members to conduct combat missions in Iraq. None of the unit's soldiers were killed, but several were sent home early or returned with injuries.

Captain Greg Heilshorn, a Guard spokesman, was not able to say yesterday how many were wounded.

Sergeant John Worrall was among that group. He attended the homecoming after being sent home more than a month ago when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad during a mid-November patrol. He said he was driving and managed to keep the vehicle on the road after the blast, then began calling the names of other soldiers riding with him.

''I was sure my gunner's head was gone," he said, until he heard, ''I'm up sergeant!"

Worrall suffered wounds to his knees, wrists, and a shoulder, as well as severe bruising along his left side. He is using a cane to walk. The vehicle was armored, a fact he credited with saving the soldiers' lives.

It was ''a pretty hairy day," he added.

About 150 members of the Guard's Hillsboro-based 744th Transportation Company returned to Concord late yesterday afternoon. The transportation company also spent about a year in Iraq, conducting supply convoy missions that brought its soldiers under frequent attack.

The unit lost one member, Sergeant Jeremiah Holmes, of North Berwick, Maine, to a roadside bomb on March 29. Specialist Gary Lytle, a driver, was two vehicles behind Holmes's when the blast occurred. Returning without a fellow soldier made the homecoming difficult, he said.

''I wish he was here," Lytle added.

Lytle's wife, Gina, said she was both shocked and elated at her husband's safe return.

''It's been a long year," she said.