News 14 Carolina's Amy Thorpe is in Rocky Mount, where the soldiers arrived Tuesday after 10 months in Iraq.
ROCKY MOUNT-- It was a bittersweet homecoming for more than 100 North Carolina National Guardsmen Tuesday afternoon.
Soliders from the 1132nd Military Police Company came home to their families after a 10-month deployment in Iraq, but they arrived in Rocky Mount without some of their comrades.
Tracy Rickel's son, Spc. Allen Ramsey, had been away from home for a year and on the front lines in Iraq for nearly that long.
"We're so proud of them and we're ready for them to come home now,” Rickel said.
Ramsey's family couldn't wait to see him as he got off the plane at Rocky Mount-Wilson Regional Airport with 120 other soldiers from the 1132nd Military Police Company, a part of the North Carolina Army National Guard.
"It's my first deployment,” Ramsey said, hugging his mother, sister and grandparents. “I really haven't seen this many people so excited.”
“I wanted to cry because I was so excited to see everybody… Finally it was over,” added Spc. Jessica Pesek as she got off the plane.
It was a bittersweet homecoming though as the 1132nd Military Police Company lost five soldiers in the war. Four were from the North Carolina company and the fifth was from a platoon in New Hampshire.
This is the greatest number of casualties for the North Carolina National Guard since World War II.
“It was my team. I don't want to talk about it,” Ramsey said.
“It was long and difficult,” Rickel added. “They lost several good people, but they've done good things. They've done great things."
For Spc. Ramsey, life is simple now. He said he only wants “the beach, water [and] family.”
The soldiers trained at Camp Shelby, Miss. before deploying to Iraq in September 2007.