Arizona National Guard soldiers return to Arizona after surviving deadly Jordan drone attack
PHOENIX - A group of Arizona National Guard soldiers are back home for the first time in months. Some of them were among those wounded in a deadly drone attack in Jordan back in January.
Some family members reunited and others met for the first time.
Bushmaster Adrian Mata meets his daughter for the first time after returning from service on Aug. 10.
The group of men and women of this battalion served in 17 locations across seven countries.
The most important location to all of them though, is home, and that's where they arrived today.
It's a moment nearly one year in the making.
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"Excited, nervous, anxious. I'm so excited," said Lyndsi Buckner.
Buckner and hundreds of other family members, reuniting with their loved ones of the 1st Battalion, 158th Infantry Regiment, Arizona National Guard Bushmasters helped to welcome them home on Saturday.
"We were married for 13 months before he left and it's been a long time coming. He missed our anniversary and our birthdays and now we get to go home and celebrate all at once," Buckner said.
Celebrations and joyful emotions filled the hangar.
"It felt really good, you know, my mom obviously cried as this is the first time I've been away from home this long. It's really good to see everybody," Bushmaster Adam Tejeda said.
The soldiers noted how hard the time away was for them and for those back home.
"I do think the sacrifice goes more on the families because for me, it's like this is a job, this is what I signed up for, this is what I wanted to do. Right? I signed up to do this in 2021 and this is finally my chance to do my job, I've always wanted to do this," Tejeda said.
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The pride of that service is at the heart of the entire reunion.
"They should be proud of their dads and their brothers and their sisters and wives that they did a great job while they were out there," Captain Hyrum Byers said.
"We were one of the best units in theater over there and they just have so much to be proud of and they are the heroes they think they are."