STREATOR - The return of Streator's National Guard unit still was hours away Saturday, but hundreds of people were already filling City Park for a homecoming celebration. | Photo gallery

By noon, the park was packed and the three buses carrying the 170 members of the 1744th Transportation Company were still an hour away. Their northward progress on Interstate 39 was tracked by cell phone.

When they reached Streator, the buses joined a procession to the park with two fire trucks, a squad car and a dozen motorcycles.

Right on schedule, they arrived at 1 p.m., and their 15 months away home was over.

The soldiers disembarked for a brief ceremony and then were dismissed to find their waiting loved ones. What followed on the sunny, warm afternoon were hundreds of small, informal homecoming ceremonies as families greeted their soldiers with hugs, tears and everything from balloons to a dove release.

"Boy, I'm glad to be home," said Spc. James Edwards of Chicago Heights.

"You think you're glad," said his mother, Catherine Stearns, as they embraced. "I can't tell you how I feel."

The return was made sweeter for the families because the unit, which had guarded traffic on a busy highway from Kuwait to northern Iraq, came home with no killed or wounded soldiers.

The waiting families were on the mind of Brig. Gen. Anthony "Mark" Stanich, who represented the Illinois Guard's Springfield headquarters at the ceremony.

"I want to thank all the families who made this sacrifice," he told the crowd.

Far better than leaving home

The day was markedly different from when the unit was sent off 15 months ago for more training before its yearlong deployment to Iraq, Streator Mayor Ray Schmitt noted.

"It was 105 degrees out and we were not happy to see our young people go for so long," Schmitt said before the homecoming ceremony. "Now they're home and no one was injured. I'm tickled pink."

The unit drew members from throughout the state to fill its ranks before deployment. Despite the distance from their hometowns, just about every soldier seemed to have someone to greet him or her.

"It's so great to be back and start catching up," said Spc. Matt McCall of Belleville, which is near St. Louis.

Coming from Tinley Park on Chicago's South Side was Staff Sgt. Mike Wintz. "This is my second tour and sure hope that is it," he said.

The only political note sounded about U.S. involvement in Iraq came from state Sen. Gary Dahl, R-Granville, who told the audience to support a continued U.S. presence there.

Among the greeters was Kelly Rath, 17, a senior at Streator High School who plans to enter the military after graduation.

"I'm a Marine recruit and so that's why I'm here today," Rath said. "And they're my people."

About 8,000 Illinois National Guard members have been deployed during the course of the Iraq war, and welcoming any of them home "is always very emotional," said Chief Warrant Officer Jim Graves, who works with the National Guard's Springfield-based public affairs office and has covered a number of such events.

The unit left in July for training at Camp Atterbury, Ind., where the troops switched from their usual role as cargo haulers to providing security for convoys. In Iraq, they were based at Camp Anaconda at Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad.

The Guard members now will undergo a reorientation program to help them re-enter civilian life and return to their usual unit mission, but that will be part of their regular weekend training.