Can You Be Home if You Don’t Have One?

Greeted by the blasts of water cannon, 100 members of the Louisiana National Guard returned home Friday from Iraq, leaving behind the carnage of warfare to find their families in their hurricane-ravaged state.

As soon as the plane touched down, the troops clapped and yelled, “Yeah!”

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome home!” a flight attendant announced. “We’re glad you’re home safe.”

After the plane touched down following a flight from Kuwait and stopovers in Europe and Maine, a pair of green firetrucks blasted the Boeing 757 with water cannons as 50 to 60 people clapped and held banners saying “Welcome home troops.”

The soldiers clambered down the stairs and were greeted by Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.

“Let me say for the citizens of Louisiana: ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ I wish this could have been a better place to come to,” she continued, adding: “We can come back; we will come back.”

Most of the soldiers lost everything to Hurricane Katrina and will qualify for safe haven status, in which they will get a 14-day leave and then be eligible for demobilization.

However, Blanco said, “We’re offering them the opportunity to continue to serve in the Guard and help us rebuild southeast Louisiana.”

Maj. Gen. Bennett Landreneau said the Guard would help them find housing, and the soldiers would be allowed to go to New Orleans as soon as it was safe.

Earlier, the plane stopped in Bangor, Maine, where the soldiers went through Customs. At Bangor airport, members of a U.S. veterans group waved flags and offered the soldiers cellphones and cookies.

After seeing 35 of their number killed in Iraq, the soldiers readied to take care of relatives or, perhaps, mourn family members killed by the hurricane and its devastating aftermath.

For Spc. Nathan Faust of Chalmette, it’s a huge loss. His family home is flooded to the peak of the roof. His fiancee’s home in Plaquemines Parish is also devastated.

“All my stuff, all my family -- everyone’s homeless,” said Faust, his worry-lined face making him appear older than his 23 years. “I want to move out of the city and start over someplace else. I can’t put my life on hold for two years and wait for the city to get back on its feet.”

Since Katrina struck, soldiers knew their homecoming would be trading one disaster zone for another. “Bittersweet isn’t the word for it. It’s worse,” said Sgt. Joe Partin, 34, of Harahan.