Fort Sill, Okla. ? Wyatt Shaffer was just 9 weeks old when his dad and the 891st Engineering Battalion left last year for Iraq.

But in the first moments after Sgt. Vernon Shaffer Jr. was welcomed back to the United States, the blonde little boy – now almost 17 months old – wrapped his legs around his father’s legs in a loving embrace.

“I’m glad to be back,” Sgt. Shaffer, of Independence, Kan., said in between hugs from his two other sons and wife, Shawna. “Glad to be back out of the sand. It was a long year.”

Shaffer was one of 270 members of the Kansas National Guard battalion who returned Saturday. The other half of the unit – including the commander, Lt. Col. Lee Tafanelli, of Ozawkie – will be greeted in a similar Fort Sill ceremony at 1:30 a.m. Monday.

The Shaffer family came dressed in sweatshirts printed with their father’s face, and brought large posters proclaiming their support.

“We’re very proud of him,” Shawna Shaffer said of her husband. “Proud of all of them. Glad they made it home. Glad it’s over.”

Dangerous duty

The 891st – nearly 500 soldiers in companies from Coffeyville, Iola and Pittsburg – left the country last December. During their year in Iraq, members of the battalion guarded 200 convoys traveling 40,000 miles across the country. During one five-day period, the Kansas soldiers cleared 300 roadside bombs from the dangerous “Route Tampa” south of Mosul.

Fort Sill Col. Mark McDonald said the 891st lost two soldiers during the year. Only one death – that of Spc. Derrick Lutters, a Goodland native, during an April car-bomb attack – had been publicized previously. Guard officials weren’t immediately available for clarification.

Saturday, though, was a day of celebration for the returning soldiers and more than 300 friends and family members who made the trip to southwest Oklahoma to greet them. They gathered in a cavernous gymnasium, under a banner: “Welcome Home Iraqi Freedom Heroes.”

After a warning from the emcee, asking eager family members not to “charge the formation,” the unit marched into the gym for a short ceremony.

“Welcome home to the United States of America,” McDonald said. “891st – job well done. Thank you very much.”

• Tafanelli speaks of unit’s loss, mission under his command (05-09-05)
• Kansas Guardsman killed in Iraq remembered as a peacemaker (05-04-05)
• 6News video: Kansas battalion homesick in Iraq (2-18-05
• Boots on the ground (2-15-05)
• Staring down their future (10-31-04)
• 891st Engineer Battalion

At the command of “fall out!” the soldiers let out a whoop and sought out their wives, parents and children.

Going home

Sgt. David McDonald and his wife, Michelle, took a few minutes to find each other – finally giving each other a hearty hug.

“That was my second time there,” Sgt. McDonald said of Iraq. “I was there in ’03.”

“It’s his last time,” his wife said.

After a day or two with families, members of the 891st will return to Fort Sill for a week of paperwork and health checks.

“A year of combat is tough on the body, so get yourselves checked out and get everything documented; the American public owes that to you,” Col. McDonald told the 891st.

The soldiers will also be given advice on how to cope with a return to civilian life.

“A lot of these moms have been paying the bills and running the household for a year, so it’s going to be different,” said Emily Kelley, a spokeswoman for the fort. “You might have to go to counseling, and that’s just fine.”

Sgt. Shaffer, though, had other activities.

“I’m going to go out with the boys,” he said of his sons. “Hunting, fishing, feeding the cows and taking care of the farm. Things America takes for granted.”