Published: May 06, 2006 12:34 am      

Support shouldn’t end with welcome home celebration

There were tears. There were hugs. There were smiles. And there were cheers.

The men and women of Bravo Company were home at last.

Community members from the very young to the elderly lined the streets and sat shoulder-to-shoulder with family members in Effingham High School football stadium to welcome home our local soldiers who have spent more than a year in Iraq.

And then came heart-wrenching moments when the soldiers were reunited with their families. Children were overwhelmed at seeing daddy or mommy again. Wives and husbands were overcome with emotion. Fathers and mothers cried tears of relief to have their loved ones back on safe ground.

The community provided a fitting welcome for the worn-out soldiers.

But the cheers will fade and the banners will come down and our Illinois National Guard Company B, 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry will be left to deal with an experience that no human should have to endure — war.

Unfortunately the grim sights and the experience of life in a danger zone will not fade as quickly as the celebration.

The next few weeks will be spent soaking in the family life they left behind 18 months ago, but the war experience will be carried with them forever more. It is this knowledge the community must recognize, pledging support in the tough times as well as this joyous one.

Although the Effingham area was fortunate to get its soldiers in the local Guard back on home soil safe and sound, there are still some area families whose sons and daughters are in other branches of the service and still in danger. Let our thoughts remain with them until they are safely back home as well.

And let us not forget that regardless of personal views about the war, every American man and woman who is in danger in Iraq or Afghanistan is there in the name of all of us. Keep them in your hearts and prayers until they all come home.