PHOTO & VIDEO: First wave of 39th soldiers return to U.S.

By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Contact)

Sgt. Jermell Heath (middle) of Houston spends time with his wife Joeanna and 6-month-old daughter Jenesis on Wednesday night during a welcome home ceremony at Camp Shelby, Miss. Heath was returning home from a deployment to Irag with A Troop 151 Cavalry Regiment. Staton Breidenthal

CAMP SHELBY, Miss. — Alpha Troop, 151st Cavalry Regiment, is home.

Soldiers were welcomed home by family and friends
WATCH VIDEO

The 160 soldiers of Alpha Troop are the first of Arkansas’ 39th Infantry Brigade to return home from Iraq, landing on American soil shortly after sunset Wednesday.

“I sure am glad we’ve got some guys home,” said Lt. Col. Brett Stewart, 39th rear detachment operations officer.

The rest of the brigade’s 3,000 soldiers, who represent every unit in the state, will return in waves over the next month.

Alpha Troop stepped onto a plane in the Kuwait desert a day earlier and had time to think about the days to come, about Thanksgiving and reunions.

The chartered plane landed in the Mississippi night under a canopy of stars with little fanfare, only a small welcoming party including Maj. Gen. Bill Wofford, Arkansas’ adjutant general.

While the homecoming is considered the end of a deployment, the work is far from over. The lengthy process of helping soldiers transition back into civilian life is just beginning.

“The unit leadership has taken good care of these soldiers for the last 12 months,” Wofford said. “Now it’s our chance.”

Stay with ArkansasOnline for photos and video of the homecoming.