Joyful Hugs Welcome Marines : Homecoming: Returning warriors catch up on changes in their families and revel in rejoining loved ones.

There were no marching bands to greet the handful of Desert Storm Marines who stepped off the bus at the Marine Corps Air Station here Monday.

Troops engaged in pickup softball games on nearby fields barely missed a pitch.

But it didn’t matter. All Cpl. Brad Bolanger wanted to do was cradle his 5-month-old daughter, Brittany Anne, whose birth he missed while on duty in the Persian Gulf.

A short distance away, Chief Warrant Officer Bob Sypolt was lost in the embraces of a wife and two children and thoughts of homemade lasagna and strawberry cheesecake.

“Before everything started, I thought we would be over there forever,” Bolanger said, gazing into his new daughter’s tiny face. “I’ve wanted to come back ever since she was born.”

The seven Marines, a mix of helicopter pilots and air support troops who spent seven months overseas, formed a small group of what is expected to be much larger contingents of troops and equipment returning to home bases in Orange County throughout the week.

Tina Bolanger said she received notice of her husband’s return early Monday morning and quickly gathered the children--3-year-old B.J. and Brittany Anne--for the drive to a set of bleachers erected in the shadow of one of the station’s huge aircraft hangars. Leaving nothing to chance, the young family arrived at 8 a.m., armed with flowers and balloons, for the corporal’s scheduled noon arrival.

“You’re so big. You’re so big,” Bolanger said, softly nuzzling his daughter. “Come here, you!” he said, reaching for his son and lifting him to his knee. “Did mommy cut off all your hair?”

Noticeably moved by the reunion, Bolanger, who shipped out last summer, said he now has only 15 days before the end of his enlistment.

“I have no idea what I’m going to do. Right now, I want to go home and watch my own TV.”

While Bolanger was hugging his daughter, Capt. Al Soto was reuniting with his wife and 5-year-old twin daughters and 2-year-old son. The children have grown noticeably since August, he said.

“It seemed like (today) would never come,” said Soto, 33. “It’s like seeing them (his family) for the first time all over again.”

Soto’s number one priority, he said, is to get reacquainted with his son, Lawrence.

“He’s afraid of me; he’s kinda shy,” Soto said. “He calls me dad, but he really doesn’t understand what the word means.”

Just a few yards away, Sypolt was getting reacquainted with his wife, Cathy. He towered over his children Brian, 11, and Valerie, 8.

Although he had predicted a quick end to the war, the chief warrant officer looked as though he could hardly believe that he was home. After all, it had only been a short time since he was a helicopter crewman flying medical evacuations from Kuwait city and dropping troops into the war zone.

In the hours after the ground offensive was launched, Sypolt said, he and his colleagues couldn’t believe the ease with which they carried out their missions.

“We thought (Iraqi President Saddam) Hussein had something up his sleeve,” Sypolt said. “We thought he had mined or booby-trapped much of the area. It just didn’t feel right. The press had built him up to be this ingenious and diabolical person.”

Monday, he was looking forward to a vacation in Mexico, spending time with his wife and daughter and catching up on the athletic achievements of his son.

Among those greeting Monday’s arrivals was Col. Larry Underwood, executive officer of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 161, who returned Saturday and was praising the efforts of Tustin and El Toro Marines who helped pummel the Iraqi Army in the relentless air assault.

Underwood described his involvement in an air blocking maneuver that was designed to pin down enemy troops just west of Kuwait city so that Marine Task Force Ripper could break though Iraqi lines on the ground and aid the assault on Kuwait International Airport.

Their mission, delayed once by blowing sand, encountered some anti-aircraft fire, but he said no helicopters were lost.

“It was exciting,” Underwood said. “It got the adrenaline going. But the war for us only lasted 48 hours, and we did not get a lot of resistance.”

Underwood said he expects most of the troops and equipment deployed from Tustin to return this week.