WELCOME HOME (AGAIN)

FORT DRUM — Even after almost 12 months, thousands of miles, scores of phone calls, plenty of tears and immeasurable worry, families of deployed soldiers watched as their loved ones stood still — one group in stiff formation on the gym floor, the other in anticipation in the bleachers — Friday night at Magrath Sports Complex.

Patriotic songs ended, a soldier twirled and saluted, and a voice came over the loudspeaker.

"Dismissed," the voice said.

With that, soldiers broke formation, clapped and cheered and children ran into waiting arms, wives and husbands kissed as cameras flashed, and 149 members of the 1st Brigade Combat Team were finally home after a tour in some of Afghanistan's most uncharted territory in a war that is approaching a decade in duration.

"Never," Michelle L. Johnson, a military spouse, replied when asked if it gets any easier after three tours of duty, which her husband had just completed. Mrs. Johnson said that mentoring some of the younger spouses, as she was mentored during her husband's first tour, helped.

Her husband knows the welcome-home routine so well, in fact, that the family didn't have to wait for the pomp and circumstance before they could see Sgt. 1st Class Travis J. Johnson. He came out to the bleachers before the 5:30 p.m. ceremony, handed his daughter a tin case with a pink pony inside, told his family where they could sit to get a good view of him and posed for a quick picture.

Sgt. Johnson was among those who said that being away from his family — 15-year-old Christian T., now a bit taller than his dad and excited for a lighter list of chores; 11-year-old Logan D., who chimed in that he's almost as tall, too, and 4-year-old Emma E., who, when not playing with her new toy, held up a sign that said, "Welcome Home, Daddy" — was the hardest part of the tour, in which American forces made significant strides.

"We made a huge change," Sgt. Johnson said. As in Iraq, where he served two tours, "Once we figured out the strategy, we could stabilize the area."

That wasn't the case before the American forces arrived. Sgt. Johnson was in the northern part of Afghanistan as part of President Barack Obama's troop surge; the American and NATO presence in the area had been minimal.

"They had to build it really from the ground up," said Anna M. Hurt, who waited with one of her four children, 6-year-old Taylor.

Mrs. Hurt, like other spouses, measured progress in the northern part of Afghanistan not by troop counts or points on a map, but by calls home from her husband, Spc. Stefan G. Hurt.

When soldiers first arrived, they had so few amenities that the first task was building their own shelter.

By the end of the tour, daily texts and calls were common, Mrs. Hurt said.

And by Friday night, those phones were being used to snap pictures.

For some, the situation and its emotions were familiar.

Others were new, and when told of the spouses and families going through this for a third time, had a look that said, "How could they deal with that?"

After a beat, the look changed to, "How could I deal with that?"

While two years of dwell time is not guaranteed for the battle-weary soldiers, that was far from the minds of those gathered Friday night, where common themes were, in order: family, pizza, beer.

"Mmm..." Sgt. Johnson said, pausing for a moment to consider what type of Pizza Hut pizza he'd have later on, clearly reveling in the question. "Meat lover's."