Bloodied but Unbowed, Battalion Is Back in USA

Greeted by the cheers and tears of excited family members, soldiers from Virginia’s 276th Engineer Battalion returned to the United States on Wednesday after a bloody tour of duty in Iraq.

Two members of the Richmond-based battalion were killed in the Dec. 21 suicide bombing of a crowded mess tent in northern Iraq.

The battalion faced repeated mortar and rocket attacks during its deployment, which started last January. Thirty members were awarded Purple Hearts.

When the soldiers got off the planes at Ft. Dix, blue and white buses carried them to a parking lot where friends and relatives cheered and waved flags. Some wives shouted their husbands’ names.

“James,” one woman shouted to her husband. Another tearfully pleaded: “I just want to see his face.”

Sgt. Evan Byler of Fauquier County, Va., was one of the first soldiers to cross the parking lot and into the arms of his fiance. They stood there hugging, saying nothing.

Companies A and B are set to return to Virginia on Feb. 21. The Headquarters and C companies are expected to return home a couple of days later.