Town of Patriots Dusts Off Flags for Guard Unit’s Return

In Iraq, they drove more than a million miles, escorting convoys and steering trucks through the desert. But on Friday, it was one final mile through this quaint New England town that brought tears to the 1058th National Guard unit -- and cheers to several thousand family and friends who lined their route home.

“This is just amazing,” said Billy Chiu, 29, descending from a Pumpkin Lines transit bus after a year in Iraq, as a bagpipe played “Give My Regards to Broadway.”

For much of the day, a chilly spring rain fell on Main Street -- where 140 signs, each bearing the name of one member of the Hingham-based transportation unit, were tacked to telephone poles. “Great job!” they read.

Five buses filled with returning troops rolled down the historic boulevard of the town, founded in 1633, that had proudly sent Benjamin Lincoln, forebear of the president, off to fight in the Revolutionary War.

The 1058th arrived in Ft. Drumm, N.Y., this week. But it was the ride down what Eleanor Roosevelt called the most beautiful Main Street in America that showed them they were home at last.

Giant oaks and maples sported yellow ribbons. Children climbed on car roofs, waving flags and banners. A delegation from the South Shore Baptist Church stood on the corner of Main and Free streets, waiting to clap for Bobby Stockbridge -- a member of the congregation who also belonged to the 1058th. “Thank God for Bob and the 1058th,” read a sign outside the church.

On another corner, 10-year-old Olivia Vita carried a hand-colored sign that said: “Thank You, 1058th.” She explained, “My whole class came to wave them goodbye when they left. I just had to be here when they came back.”

The 20,000 residents of Hingham -- which hugs the seacoast midway between Boston and Plymouth -- need little excuse to wave their American flags. Flags come out throughout the year: on Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, Labor Day, Patriot’s Day and, of course, on Flag Day. The major social event here is the flag-filled Fourth of July parade, led each year by the town’s oldest living veteran.

It was during last summer’s parade that Marion White decided to mobilize the town when the 1058th came home. With their children overseas, White and other parents marched in the parade in their place, carrying a banner identifying themselves as the families of the 1058th.

“That was when I knew this town believed in its soldiers,” said White, a seventh-grade teacher from Raynham, about 25 miles from Hingham. “They cheered and they cheered, and I realized Hingham was 100% behind these soldiers.”

White’s daughter Kathleen, 29, left her job at a nuclear power plant to serve as a trucker in Iraq. She ended up as a gunner, operating a .50-caliber weapon.

“They were a transportation unit. Supposedly, it was a safe job,” said her brother, Christian White, 31. He whipped out his cellphone to show a picture of Kathleen on duty in Iraq -- standing atop a truck, her giant gun beside her.

“The hardest part of her being over there for 14 months was listening to the reports every day of another death,” he said. “Every unit that was hit, you thought it might be her. Your stomach dropped. Your heart raced. And it just got worse by the day. It never got better.

“Every person here has a soldier that was directly involved in a convoy unit,” Christian White said. “These families know that we are still at war.”

Scanning the crowd for his stepfather, Hanniff Brown, 16-year-old Ewan Scott of the Dorchester section of Boston said he tried to keep his little brother, Dominique, from watching television while their dad was in Iraq.

“Every morning you wake up, this one died, that one died -- and you know it could have been him,” the teenager said.

Whether through luck, providence or a combination of the two, the 1058th returned intact. The day they came back to the Hingham Armory, newspapers and television stations across America were displaying previously suppressed pictures of soldiers’ flag-draped coffins arriving in the U.S. They arrived home as Pentagon officials were announcing the highest death toll for any month since the U.S.-led invasion began -- at least 100 American soldiers dead so far in April.

As he embraced his wife, Spec. Jude Forsythe, 40, had an explanation for how the unit had avoided fatalities in Iraq.

“Togetherness,” he said. “Working together as a team. We never went anywhere alone.”

Reluctantly, Felicity Forsythe pulled away from her husband. “Hold your daughter; she needs you,” she said as her husband embraced a weeping Alexis Forsythe, 11.

“We knew he was coming home today,” Felicity Forsythe said. “But none of this was real until just now.... He is safe, and we’re going to take good care of him now.”

Forsythe had this to say about planting his feet back on the Massachusetts soil: “Sweet.”

On the steps of the armory, a group of veterans applauded the versatility of the returning soldiers.

“They went to do one job, transportation, and ended up as an armored escort,” said Bob Beal, who served in the Pacific in World War II with the Marine Corps and also fought in the Korean War.

“There’s only one thing to account for getting them all back here safely,” Beal said: “God.”

Lt. Col. Chris Henes, head of the Massachusetts National Guard in Milford, said he was too superstitious to talk about why the 1058th had fared so well.

“I don’t want to say it’s unusual, and I don’t want to jinx us, but going back to Desert Storm [the Persian Gulf War], we have been lucky,” he said.

Henes said the future plans of the unit were uncertain. He also said the 1058th was fortunate to be home, while so many other units in Iraq have seen their tours extended.

While waiting to greet her son Paul, 36, Janice Ferrone of Woburn, Mass., said she was glad the Pentagon had released the pictures of coffins returning to the U.S. mortuary at Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base.

“This is a war, and [death] happens,” she said. “It should be acknowledged. It shouldn’t be covered up.”

Acknowledging the soldiers in the 1058th was what Marion White had in mind when she began working with Hingham officials to plan a festive welcome.

“This is small-town America, and we wanted to make sure they got the hero’s welcome they deserved,” she said. “Between the signs and the flowers and ... all these people turning out to cheer for them, I’d say they got it.”

White looked for a moment at her daughter, who had dropped more than 60 pounds while in Iraq. “Mom, all we had to eat were little cups of chicken noodle soup,” Kathleen White said.

As the crowd headed home, Marion White said she would be back in Hingham this summer to march in the Fourth of July parade.

“But this time,” she said, “I’m going to march with my soldier.”