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After a 16 month deployment the Rogers National Guard unit came home yesterday. There was a big gathering at the John Q Hammons Center in Pinnacle Hills. Thanks go out to Mayor Womack, the city of Rogers and everyone that participated in this event.

I was on hand to help welcome home our heroes. Until yesterday my brother was a member of the National Guard. He started with the Bentonville Unit and went to Rogers seeking a promotion, which he got.

In November of 2005 my brother was among the nearly 150 men who were called upon to go Iraq to help fight in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I will never forget having Thanksgiving dinner for the first time with out my brother. The emotions that everyone went through are impossible to describe. My mother video taped the dinner so that she could send it to him.

Late in November we got the most bitter sweet news a family with a soldier deployed could receive. My brother had a medical problem and might get sent home. As most of you know, the soldiers went to New Jersey to train and be briefed before they were deployed. During this time my brother had to see a neurologist because of pain in his elbows - it turned out to be something that would send him home, he never saw Iraq.

Yesterday his fellow soldiers came home to a hero’s welcome. Nobody will argue that they didn’t deserve it and I am proud to have been a part of it. My brother has had one surgery and it trying to move on with civilian life. Thank God that he was able to see once again all but one of his friends yesterday. We lost one soldier and he will always be remembered, and our prayers go out to the family and friends of this brave man.

Don’t forget, thank a soldier. It is because people make these sacrifices we are able to live life as it is. That is why I can write this, and why you can read it. I am eternally thankful.

Welcome home Charlie Battery, 1st Battalion, 142nd Fires Brigade!