KILGORE — Diana Ramos said a few wrong turns caused a four-hour delay in her drive from Eagle Pass to Kilgore earlier this week.
The extra time, however, did not begin to compare with the last 15 months Ramos spent apart from her husband.
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Kevin Green/News-Journal Photo | Spc. Tony Pipkins hugs his wife, Mikki Pipkins, on Wednesday as she holds 8-month-old LaPamela Pipkins while 2-year-old Cassandra Pipkins, left, looks on.
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More than 50 people waited in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday outside the Texas National Guard's Kilgore armory, while husbands, brothers, boyfriends and sons — members of Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 144th Infantry regiment — rode chartered buses to town from Camp Shelby, Miss.
After almost a year in Iraq, the men were coming home. Many of the soldiers spent additional months away training.
"I just want to start screaming," Ramos said as her son, Andrew Ramos, 2, waved a small American flag from his stroller seat. "I'm very excited for him to come home. We talked on the phone during his tour, but it's not the same."
Rick Summers, a Hallsville resident and father of Sgt. Dozier "Sonny" Summers, agreed.
"We'll feel good when we can touch him," Summers said of the half-dozen family members who came to greet their soldier. "I feel like I'm going to cry any minute."
Tears began to flow throughout the welcoming crowd as a Kilgore police escort turned onto Stone Road from U.S. 259, with four buses following. The crowd clapped and cheered as the caravan made its way under a flag-draped bridge created by two Kilgore Fire Department ladder trucks.
As the soldiers stepped onto Kilgore soil for the first time since Aug. 1, many were greeted with tight hugs, long kisses and words of affection.
"I'm really excited," said Spc. Tony Pipkins of Kerens. "I was just ready to come home and see my family and spend more time with my youngest daughter. I haven't seen her since she was 2 weeks old."
Pipkins was greeted by his wife, Nikki Pipkins, and their two daughters, Cassandra, 2, and 8-month-old LaPamela.
"We're ready to get home and get the party started," Nikki added. "Cassandra is 2, and she has to get used to (dad) again. LaPamela still has to bond with him. She doesn't really know him."
For some of the soldiers, the personal greetings won't come until the weekend, when they complete the last leg of their trip home to other states. Others, like 1st Sgt. Rudy Zepeda, still have a couple more weeks before they can sleep in their own beds.
"He's leaving Friday morning for Pennsylvania for two weeks of first sergeant school," said Vi Zepeda, Rudy's wife. Vi said she traveled from the couple's San Antonio home to see her husband before he left again.
"It was a sensational feeling seeing him," Vi said. "I haven't seen him since he deployed in August. He gave up his two week R-and-R so that other soldiers could take advantage. But he'll be home at the end of May for a 90-day leave."
The best thing about coming back to Texas, said Capt. Patrick Fugere, is that every man came back alive and uninjured. Fugere is the company commander.
"We had a few people that had their bells rung, but nothing serious," Fugere said. "That's a testimony to their training."
Bravo Company members were spending Wednesday night with local family members or at a Kilgore hotel so that they could attend a closing ceremony today at the armory.
"It's a mix of feelings right now," Fugere said. "It's nice, but it's surreal being back here."
