300 Camp Lejeune Marines come home from Iraq
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. | About 300 Marines returned to their North Carolina base Sunday from duty in Iraq's Anbar province and another 900 are expected to follow this week as the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment comes home.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070218/APN/702183267
The Associated Press
Marines were greeted with cheers, tears and welcome home signs as their buses arrived.
Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph Bering met his 3-month-old daughter Allyson and saw his daughter, Katie, 1, again.
"It's great," Bering said. "I've seen pictures, but it does no justice to actually be able to hold them."
More Marines are to come back Tuesday and Wednesday after months of fighting insurgents with Iraqi forces.
"Our mission was to basically backstop and become a windbreak for the Iraqi army in the city of Fallujah," said Maj. Sean Riordan, the unit's executive officer. "It was a dangerous kind of a complex environment where you had urban, suburban and rural terrain."
Eight members of the battalion killed and 40 were seriously injured.