Cape Guard unit returns from Iraq

Cathy Darling waits for daughter Lily to step off the plane.

Cape Guard unit returns from Iraq
By K.C. MYERS
kcmyers@capecodonline.com
May 14, 2011
OTIS AIR BASE — The family members, carrying balloons, banners and babies, surged forward with a cheer that sounded more like a roar when they saw the airplane taxi toward them.

Minutes later, troops emerged from the transport aircraft and the tarmac was filled with long embraces and children hugging camo-clad legs. Babies stared at fathers they've barely ever met. And mothers and fathers clutched their now-grown boys and girls after a yearlong deployment in Iraq.

"I'm overwhelmed at the moment," said Damon Solomon, a sergeant in the 3rd Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment.

His father, mother, grandmother, aunts, nieces, two sons and daughter swarmed around the 30-year-old Plymouth man when he got off the plane.

"To see so many people, it's surreal," Solomon said.

About 160 members of the 3rd Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment of the Massachusetts National Guard traveled home from Kuwait on Friday.
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Cape Guard unit returns from Iraq