Cheers, tears for Utah heroes

SPANISH FORK — Kami Adamson held her baby girl tight and lifted her face into the Sunday morning sun. Eyes glistening, she basked in the cheers for her American dream — U.S. Army National Guard Sgt. Cody Adamson, who finally came marching home.

Adamson and the other Utah Valley men who helped make up the 1457th Combat Engineer Battalion were given a hero's welcome at 10 a.m. Sunday in Spanish Fork. They had been in the Middle East for more than a year when their duty ended.

"What a great event," said Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, who mingled with the men with his wife, Claudia, before an all-sirens-blaring parade down Main Street.

An estimated 300 well-wishers lined the street, many clad in red, white and blue shirts and waving American flags. Banners with heartfelt messages unfurled as the uniformed soldiers, sitting atop a city fire engine and escorted by five police cars, rolled down the road.

Sidewalks swelled when the squawking squad cars signalled the start of the parade, planned to herald the homecoming of the battalion that came home in two contingents Sunday.

The first bunch of the 110 returning members of the battalion arrived in Salt Lake City about 7 a.m. The second arrived in the afternoon.

As the trucks started down the street Sunday, LDS faithful attending Sunday services poured out of the two meetinghouses on Main Street to welcome back the men who left behind wives and mothers, fathers and friends to answer Uncle Sam's call to duty.

"We're just proud to be American," said Kelly Cloward who, standing alongside his wife, Angie, and two sons, waved an American flag and cheered as the waving soldiers passed on the truck. "We just came here to say thanks."

Angie Cloward works at the Spanish Fork branch of the Bank of American Fork with family members of two of the soldiers. The women co-workers would regularly give updates about the men as they received word from the war, she said.

"There was mixed emotions when they got the word they were coming home and then they couldn't," said Angie Cloward, whose boys, 2-year-old Karson and 7-year-old Wyatt, wrote the men letters of support during their tour of duty.

"We told them to fight hard and come home safe," said Wyatt Cloward.