Warm welcome: Families eagerly greet HAFB's returning airmen

HILL AIR FORCE BASE — Three hundred left. Three hundred returned. And they're safe and sound.

That's about the best you can ask for when you send loved ones to fight a war halfway around the world.

That and a kiss. A long kiss on the tarmac. It's the sort of kiss that starts the catching up on a four-month drought. It's true homecoming fashion.

And Chris and Melinda Collins relived it Thursday.

Melinda stood waiting, expectant in a sunshine yellow dress as airmen filed off the plane that brought them home from Iraq. Her eyes were fixed on the single-file line of men and women who stepped off the plane into arms of friends and family.

Then, a full-body spark as she spotted her husband, just returning from his second tour. They had been dating during his first tour and have now been married 15 months. Almost giddy, she half-crept, half-bounded toward him.

In an instant, they were in each other's arms. And there was the kiss.

"It was amazing — magical," Melinda Collins said.

And for Chris Collins, an avionics technician, to be back with his wife is refreshing and awesome.

That was just one of many first-in-a-whiles to happen Thursday.

Then there's airman first class Jon Sweeten, who had a first-ever experience: being first off the plane and getting to hold his month-old daughter, Addison.

The first time he saw her was during a 15-hour Web cam session while his wife, Rachel, was in labor. At the time, it was the longest talk he and his wife had since January. Normally, they got about 30 minutes a day.

Watching the birth was overwhelming, he said. "But it was still nothing compared to this."

Addison slept in her daddy's arms as he carried her around the 388th's hangar. They'll get to know each other over the next year. After that, another deployment is expected.

Hill Air Force Base's 388th and 419th Fighter Wings sent more than 300 airmen — pilots, maintainers and support personnel — to Balad Air Base in Iraq in January. The unit's primary mission was to maintain security and stability in the region by providing close air support for coalition ground troops, according to the Air Force.

Families know that deployments are part of the military lifestyle, especially when there's a war on.