1st Local Troops Arrive Home From the War : Reunion: About 500 friends and family members brave the early-morning chill to greet 370 Seabees at Point Mugu.

In a homecoming scene filled with singing, cheers and laughter, the first Ventura County troops returned from the war in the Persian Gulf early Wednesday morning to a hero’s welcome.

A detachment of 370 Seabees touched down at the Point Mugu naval airstrip at 2:14 a.m. and was greeted with a red, white and blue welcome that took on the tones of a Fourth of July celebration.

About 500 family members and friends met the Seabees with hugs and flowers.

“I’ve been thinking about standing on California ground for a long time, and now that I’m finally doing it, I’ve got shakes,” said Steve Ellis, a Seabee steelworker.

“I don’t have to stand in sand up to my ankles. I don’t have to live in a hole. This is great. This is beautiful.”

As the sailors, returning from eight months in Saudi Arabia, made their way to their homes at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Port Hueneme, they were treated to a second spirited rally that caught some of them off guard.

About 250 county residents braved the early morning cold to give the Seabees a surprise welcome at the main entrance of the base.

One World War II veteran, Johnny Olins, played “When the Saints Come Marching In” on a trumpet as the smiling Seabees drove by. And about 20 Vietnam veterans waved flags and cheered.

“This is the welcome home we never got,” Donald Thomas of Oxnard said. Richard Camacho, another Vietnam veteran, added: “What happened to us won’t happen to them. When I came home . . . there was nobody there.”

Base officials said Wednesday’s joyful return is expected to be repeated several more times over the next few weeks. About 830 Seabees remain in Saudi Arabia, but 230 of them are expected back later this week.

The sailors will march Saturday in the Ventura County St. Patrick’s Day parade, which starts at 11 a.m. at the San Buenaventura Mission on Main Street in Ventura.

Since the beginning of the crisis in the Middle East, the Seabee engineers and construction teams have built reinforced tents, hospitals, galleys and other facilities for Marines stationed in Saudi Arabia. At one time during the Gulf crisis, 1,800 Seabees from Port Hueneme were serving in the region.

Although the sailors were not stationed near the front, the constant Scud missile attacks deep within Saudi Arabia kept the Seabees--and their families back home--on edge.

“They were not front line, but we never knew where the missiles were going to hit,” said Mercy Strubeck, waiting for her husband, Gerard, to return.

She said she fielded questions daily over the past eight months from her three children--ages 10, 5 and 3--who wanted to know when their father was coming home.

“We would mark every day on the calendar,” Strubeck said. “Finally, the day is here.”

The Seabees quickly streamed out of the chartered America West 747 to a red-carpet welcome. “We’re proud of you,” a base official told the men.

Family members were told to stay about 100 yards from the plane, but that rule was quickly broken. The crowd pushed onto the Tarmac and surrounded the sailors in a sea of flags.

One woman stood quietly holding the family poodle and waiting for her husband to leave the plane. Another woman, trying to shelter her 8-month-old daughter from the pushing crowd, squinted to block out the bright lights from the television cameras.

“Where is he?” asked Cynthia Mead, nervously looking for her husband.

“Where’s who?” joked her husband, Tim, who had sneaked up to surprise her.

The two hugged. “It’s good to be home,” he said.

Gerald Strubeck was immediately embraced by his children. As he balanced one in his arms, another wrapped himself around his leg.

“I thought maybe two or three people would be here,” Strubeck said, scanning the large crowd that had gathered at the airstrip. “I heard there was a lot of support for us over there, but we never dreamed it would be anything like this.”

Later Wednesday, 154 members of Reserve Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 23 returned to the county from duty in Guam.

They were greeted by about 30 reservists from Port Hueneme, who waved flags and cheered.

But no members of the public or relatives of the men, who are from the East Coast, were on hand to greet them.

“They don’t get the grand welcomes that actives seem to get because their families aren’t here,” said reserve Lt. Paula Brown, who is stationed at Port Hueneme.

The men are the first Seabees in the 740-member reserve battalion to return home. The battalion was activated Nov. 19 to replace active-duty Seabee construction crews that were diverted to Saudi Arabia from Guam and other outposts. The battalion was the first naval construction battalion called to active duty since Vietnam.

The reservists will go through a medical check and administrative procedures before they are sent home and return to civilian life, said Kim Dettloff, a spokeswoman for the Port Hueneme Naval Construction Battalion. Another group of reservists from the battalion will return to the United States in about a week and the remainder will return in July, officials said.

The reservists who arrived Wednesday afternoon said they were eager to return to their families.

“It was hard to leave,” said equipment operator Jason LaMontagne, who left his wife and newborn son in Grand Rapids, Mich., about four months ago.”I’m looking forward to seeing my baby.

Others were just happy to be back in the country. Said Bryon Bierema, 20, a construction electrician from Kalamazoo, Mich.:

“It feels great.”

Times staff writer Carol Watson contributed to this story.