One of our volunteers, Carm Angotti, who participated in this very special welcome home had this to say ... Grab some tissues first

"We all went upstairs to meet Jerry at the gate.  However, his mom had the info mixed up so we were at the wrong gate!  So we grabbed our flags and headed to the north end of the airport.  When we got there Jerry was standing there looking for his mom.  We quickly grabbed our positions and formed the line.  He made his way down the line through our claps, cheers, and hoots & hollers.  Once he made it to the end we made him walk back again. :-)  When he got back to the beginning of the line someone noticed a female Soldier in uniform close by.  They asked her if she just came home also.  She stated she was on her way to Iraq.  We did a quick changing of the guard...one home...one leaving.  We invited her to walk the flag line.  She made her way down shaking hands and giving hugs. She was in awe...almost like she was walking in slow motion.  Personally, this was an experience I will never forget.  It touched my family and I beyond words.  It was an amazing time for us.  My granddaughter Tatyana was distracted for a minute when the female Soldier made her way down the line and wasn't able to hug her.  She was very upset that she didn't get to hug her and started to cry.  We saw the Soldier standing at the ticket counter so I walked over to her and asked, "Can you spare one more hug?". She smiled from ear to ear and said of course! Wrapped her arms around Tatyana and gave her a big hug.  Tatyana told her to be safe and we would pray for her.  What an emotional night!  When we got back to the car Tatyana said, “Grandma, I feel so good about myself right now for doing something nice for these Soldiers.”  My family called the next day to insist that the next time there was something like this to be sure to let them know.  My response to them was, "Now you know why we do what I do for the troops".