Navy reservists return from deployment

NORFOLK, Va. - More than 225 sailors from the Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group Forward INDIA returned home Friday from the Middle East following an eight month deployment.

In Hampton Roads, waving a flag on Independence Day is as much a part of life as a Naval homecoming.
When the two connect, it's cause for an even greater celebration. Perhaps, an even tighter embrace.
Each of 237 sailors walked through sliding glass doors to applause and cheers. Several locked eyes with loved ones, waiting on the other side of the door.

While Dino Farnza of Virginia Beach waited for his brother, he told WAVY.com it's, "Perfect timing. They've done a great job and I'm glad they're all coming home and it's going to be a great weekend."

A great weekend is in store for Norfolk's Barahona family. Relatives waited as sailors trickled in through customs at Naval Station Norfolk. It was a patience exercised not at a pier, but at an air terminal, because the sailors returned after putting boots to the ground for 8 months in Iraq and Kuwait.

Carla Vitrano said of her brother, Petty Officer Carlos Barahona's fourth deployment, "It was much different much scarier bc we would see things on the news. We knew he wasn't in the most dangerous of grounds, but it was still scary because you never know."

She and others clapped for each sailor. Then, about a hundred sailors later, Carlos walked in, and the screams began.

The Petty Officer told WAVY.com, "I don't think I would have been able to do this without the backing of my family, and the good friends we made over there."

Fellow sailor Danielle Ainsburg told WAVY.com, "I'm excited. It's nice to be outside and it's not 104 degrees out, at 7 in the morning."
"It just feels good to be able to know that I served my country," she added.

Barahona shared the sentiment, "It makes me feel very proud to be an American, to be able to do my share."

Pride comes from his entire family comes, with its own appreciation of the American flag.

His sister said, "It's pretty much the meaning of the United States for us. We're U.S. citizens, we became citizens, we came from Peru. So , it's Independence Day. It's everything it could be!"

The mobilized sailors, gone since November 2008, served as the Department of Defense customs inspectors at sea, and aerial ports of debarkation in Kuwait and Iraq. The Navy personnel worked directly for the Army to provide this critical combat service support mission.

The reservists who came are from nearly 60 different reserve centers across the country.

The Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group is organized and staffed to deliver logistics capabilities with mobilization ready Naval Reserve Force sailors and equipment to theater commanders in support of the national military strategy. The command supports more than 4,000 Naval Reservists located throughout the United States, encompassing more than 90 percent of the U.S. Navy's Supply and Transportation Expeditionary Units.