A joyous return for Marines: Friends, family welcome 86 home

Sherrie Steely's one-year wedding anniversary was on Aug. 27, and she celebrated by spending time with friends and enjoying a phone call with her husband.

It was fun, but she plans to make up for it right away now that her husband is back from Iraq with 85 other members of Combat Logistics Battalion 7, Seventh Marine Regiment. They returned to Twentynine Palms on Sunday after a six-month deployment.

"I'm so excited; I'm going to give him a big hug," the 19-year-old Roswell, N.M. wife said about an hour before her husband, Casey, arrived.

Sherrie Steely was one of at least 200 people who awaited the Marines' return Sunday. She was also one of a handful of people who held signs and shouted as the bus transporting the Marines passed by on its way to an armory.

The Marines were sent to Iraq to provide support for frontline troops. It was their job to make sure they had adequate food supplies and any paperwork was filed properly.

Crowd members wished the Marines could have gotten off the bus right away, but they understood it was necessary for them to return their weapons first.

"Are we ever going to get there," Lance Cpl. Casey Steely, 21, thought on his way home, he said.

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