There are a lot of dads, sons, daughters, mothers, nephews and nieces of this segment of the 48th Brigade of the Georgia National Guard who have been in that dangerous desert land for over a year and no doubt they are looking forward to their homecoming as much as their loved ones are looking forward to seeing them again.
Company "C" is Gainesville's own, headquartered in the armory on a hill just off John Morrow Parkway, and in that armory Saturday, April 8, pizza was on the table and big posters were on the floor instead of what you would expect to find in an Army installation, the trappings of war - guns and canvas and olive drab four-wheel drive vehicles.
Those blank poster paper and poster boards were quickly filling up with messages, messages drawn and printed with paint and magic markers, "wonderful fun colors to welcome our soldiers home with open arms," Sara Moore said.
Moore chairs the Gainesville Family Readiness Group (GFRG) which organizes family support for the Guardsmen and there is a GFRG for every National Guard unit in Georgia.
Sarah McNair was a very busy little girl, painting, drawing, standing up and moving to and fro, carefully examining her work, an artist in the frenzy of creation, but not quite decided on what her sign should say.
"I haven't a clue," she said, but she knew why she was making the sign. "Because we're going to make signs for the soldiers when they're coming home."
Sarah's dad is one of those soldiers, one of the troops of Company "C".
"He's been gone for 18 months and I miss him a lot."
Cradled in her mom's lap just a few feet across the concrete floor from where Sarah McNair was making her sign was Maggie Davidson, not quite three months old. She had been busy too, making her sign with mother, Helen Davidson's, help.
"He hasn't met her yet. We're so excited that he'll be meeting her soon," Mom said. "Our sign will say 'Welcome Home, I love you.'"
There is something else on the sign from mother and daughter besides the hand painted greeting - which was made by mom.
"We have little hand prints and foot prints from her on it. We made a big old mess," mom said, giggling.
And so the moms, dads, sons, daughters and wives of Company "C" drew and painted their signs with wonderful fun colors and they will be ready when their soldier loved ones finally come home from a place of death and strife - to a place of love and life.
Those signs and banners will wave brightly at Fort Stewart near Savannah when the 48th Brigade gets back to Georgia and again in Gainesville, when Company "C" comes home.
It is quite possible Sarah's sign and little Maggie's sign with her tiny hand prints and foot prints will survive and be preserved in years to come as cherished mementos, as timeless messages - when two daughters told their dads, "Welcome Home, I love you."
(Jerry Gunn is a reporter for WDUN NEWS TALK 550, SPORTS RADIO 1240 THE TICKET, MAJIC 1029, and AccessNorthGa.com.)
http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/5/111184