Families Welcome Home Soldiers

Eleven Army National Guard soldiers who spent the last year in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq returned home Thursday, arriving at the National Guard's repair facility near Groton-New London Airport.

Family members and friends rushed to hug them. Some began crying.

"I was crying yesterday talking to him," said Sandra Adams, of Griswold, of her returning boyfriend, William Leuck.

Sarah Lussier, of Baltic, waited for her mother and stepfather, Heather and Andrew Gaudette. Lussier's mother helped her through the birth of her son, then had to leave the moment he was born, as the newborn was being weighed.

"She's never held him," Lussier said. "I'm excited. Like, she cries every time she sees him." 

The boy, Caidence Lussier, turns 1 today.

"He's walking. . . He's walking," Heather Gaudette said. She was in Kuwait; her husband, Andrew Gaudette, was in Northern Iraq.

"Time stood still for me," she said, hugging a child. "And it's kept going for them. So we're going to have to catch up."

Patty Cuscovitch, of Coventry, R.I., waited with her daughter for her daughter's boyfriend. A year is a long time, Cuscovitch said.

"He spent two years in Iraq and one year in Afghanistan and he doesn't want any recognition," she said. "Isn't that amazing? He's my hero."

Richard Leuck, a Vietnam-era veteran, said he'd been on deployments himself, so he knew his son would need time to decompress.

"Basically, he just wants to be left alone, get some rest and see his friends," he said. "The sooner you can get reintegrated with the community - which are his friends - the better off you are."