To Every Heart, a Direct Hit

With red, white and blue balloons fluttering, more than 200 California National Guard soldiers back from Iraq reunited with family members at a jubilant homecoming ceremony at San Bernardino’s Arrowhead Credit Union Park on Tuesday afternoon.

The soldiers, part of the thousand-member 185th Task Force, had served in Iraq for the last year.

“It’s just so overwhelming,” said Monica Valencia, 32, of Corona, whose brother Sgt. Joseph Rodriguez was among those returning.

The task force provided security around Iraq and helped reconstruct roads, bridges and Bahkan Elementary School.

Five members of the San Bernardino-based task force were killed in action in Iraq last year, including 1st Lt. Andre Tyson of Riverside. The soldiers have been stationed at Camp Roberts near San Simeon since their return Feb. 8.

A military band played “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” and community and military leaders spoke as the soldiers assembled along the stadium’s third-base line, some barely able to suppress the smiles under their khaki hats. Wives, children and parents hooted and yelled from the stands, waving American flags and homemade signs with messages like “We love you Dad!”

“Thank you, Jesus,” whispered Rodriguez’s mother, Amelia Rodriguez, 67, wiping tears as she spotted her son in the rows of khaki uniforms.

As aunts and sisters and nieces clustered around him, Rodriguez, 44, wrapped his arm around his mother with a squeeze.

“It feels good,” he said, grinning. “It feels really good.”

More than 140 soldiers from the same battalion joined their families at similar events in Santa Rosa and Fresno.

“We try to stage these [ceremonies] so the troops feel as special as they really are,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Stuart Fuller, 58, of the 40th Infantry Division.

“It’s great to see my family, great to use a normal restroom, eat normal food, shower daily,” said Sgt. Jeremy Ridgeway, 33, of San Diego. “You take the simple things for granted.”

Ridgeway, who provided security outside military compounds in Tallil, in southern Iraq, is eager to get back to life as usual, including a sales job.

His daughter Hailey, 6, suggested a trip to Disneyland. Ridgeway’s wife, Mari, described his homecoming as “surreal.”

“I could get the lawns mowed, get the car fixed, pay the bills, but when your little one says, ‘Where’s Dad?’ -- that’s the one voice in their little lives that you can’t fill,” said Mari, 33.

Some soldiers reacquainted themselves with infants they hardly knew. Lilia Andersen, 27, of Ojai was eager to reintroduce her 9-month-old son, Jacob, to his father, Capt. Arnold Andersen, who had seen him just once. Andersen happened to call his wife, who has four sons, during the delivery.

“He wished he could be there,” Lilia said, changing Jacob’s diaper. She said her boys had been struggling to cope with their dad’s absence, and the oldest, 6-year-old Michael, had “tried so hard to be the little man of the house.”

Wendy Jackson, 35, of Lancaster and her three children wore matching T-shirts and cardboard pirate hats in honor of her husband, Sgt. Michael Jackson, who loves pirates.

“It’s just been empty, you know,” Jackson said. “I think my husband’s the glue that holds us together.”