PHOENIX — More than 80 citizen-soldiers of the 198th Regional Support Group of the Arizona National Guard came home after nearly a year of deployment.
Hundreds of family members and friends attended the homecoming excited to finally have their loved one home.
"FaceTime was great, and I'm really thankful for all this technology we have, but there's nothing that replaces dad being at home," Melissa Bouey, a spouse said.
Maj. Michael Bouey, her husband, has had two other deployments and said he was in Poland for nine months but with pre-deployment it ended up being 10 months.
Bouey noted the most difficult part of being away was missing special dates.
"Missing Christmas, missing Thanksgiving, being there for the kid's birthday," Bouey said.
First Class Sgt. Jonathan Franklin said this was his fourth trip he's made "across the pond and back."
"[My kids] started school yesterday, and they're in three different schools now, elementary, junior high and high school," Franklin explained. "So it's good for me to be able to come and help the wife with the getting-them-to-and-from-school workload."
Franklin said after kissing his kids and wife, he wanted to get home and do things he couldn't do overseas.
"I truly just want to throw a nice piece of meat on the Traeger and smoke my own meal," Franklin said. "It's been a long time coming. The food over there was just a little different, so I'm ready to cook for my own self."
Cmdr. Chad Abts of the 198th Regional Support Group said the group's mission in eastern Europe was described as more of a "peaceful mission" to create bonds with other nations.
"I can't speak highly enough about what those young soldiers did over there and the impact that they had across not just the U.S. armed forces, but other nations that we were supporting as well," Abts said. "It's a lot of pride. And then, of course, getting a chance to come home and see the family is always an emotional experience."
Abts said although he's had three other deployments, it doesn't ever get easier anytime you're away from home.
"Definitely missed the sun," Abts said. "Didn't know how much we had missed that until we were living in the clouds for about three weeks, and we realized we missed it so long, nine months."
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