Hundreds Welcome Home Montana National Guardsmen

A Big Sky welcome: Hundreds turn out for Montana soldiers returning from Afghanistan
Independent Record
AL KNAUBER
Updated 4 hrs ago

“This is not where you expect to be. I didn’t expect at 50 years old to be waiting for my husband to return from war.”
Mary Graff

A soldier poses with his family after returning from a six-month deployment to Afghanistan. Thom Bridge, Independent Record

A six-month wait came to an end Friday for the families of six Montana Army National Guard soldiers.

Wives and children, mothers and fathers waited for a plane to arrive that carried the soldiers who were returning from duty in Afghanistan, as did friends and others in uniforms of camouflage who said they too were in service.

John Bebich, a Marine Corps veteran, was among those who came for the ceremony. His son, David, was on the incoming plane. He said he understood what it’s like to leave for duty. He also understood what it’s like to return.

Bebich served from 1969 to 1972 and said as he waited for David that “the going part isn’t so fun.”

“To come back, it’s like Christmas. You wait for it to arrive.”
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