Originally published May 30, 2010
By Megan Eckstein
News-Post Staff
Waiting for him was his son, Jonathan, who was born a month and a half after he deployed to Afghanistan last fall.
"There's no way to describe it," Schumacher said of holding his baby for the first time.
His wife, Christy, said she was nervous about Jonathan getting upset when the buses pulled up and everyone started yelling. But Jonathan was well-behaved when his father held him for the first time.
"He kept it together, he was good," Christy Schumacher said. "I cried, Chris cried, but Jonathan didn't, so that's all that mattered."
The 117 returning Marines and sailors of the 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion's Company B were greeted by more than a thousand relatives and friends at the Elks Lodge. The Marine Corps League and more than 20 local civic and veterans associations paid for food, drinks, a moon bounce and more to make the day special for the Marines and sailors and their families, said Sgt. William Wolbert, who helped organize the event.
Tommy Grunwell, chief of staff for the Maryland Department of the Marine Corps League who organized the volunteers and monetary donations to make the event possible, said he was proud of the support the community has shown for the returning Marines.
Company B arrived at Camp Pendleton in California early Wednesday, and the Marines had several classes to sit through before flying to Baltimore Washington International Airport on Saturday afternoon.
"It was a long wait in California, and when we finally got on the plane this morning it was just one of those things that went real quick," said Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Nelson, 27. "And now, it feels like a dream almost."
"I have been praying for this moment since they left," said his mother, Maureen Nelson. Another of Nelson's sons, Staff Sgt. Brian Nelson, also deployed with Company B. "I'm just so glad they're home safe."
The teary reunions couldn't come soon enough. Navy Hospital Corpsman HM2 (FMF) Bryan Bambach said the trip from California to Maryland was the easy part of the deployment, but his wife, Jennifer, said "it felt like the longest day of my life."
"We didn't really say anything, we just held each other for a few minutes" when Bryan got off the bus, Jennifer Bambach said. "I was shaking, so I was really trying not to fall down or throw up or anything."
As happy a day as it was for the returning Marines and sailors, the men who didn't make it home were on the minds of many people who attended the homecoming event. A January attack left three dead and three more sent back home with severe injuries.
Sgt. David Smith of Frederick , Lance Cpl. Jeremy Kane of Cherry Hill, N.J., and Petty Officer 2nd Class Xin Qi of Cordova, Tenn., died in the attack. Cpl. George O'Sullivan, Lance Cpl. Michael Hoey and Lance Cpl. Kevin Miller, who were wounded in the attack, met the rest of their company at the airport and joined them on the last stretch of their trip back to their families.
Jill Carey, the wife of Maj. Dave Carey, said the casualties made this deployment much harder on her husband than his earlier deployment to Iraq.
Carey said she was feeling "every emotion. A little nervous. I'm excited. My respect and my love for him has grown so much."
Most of all, though, she is happy to give her husband back his wedding ring. He wore a cheap ring while in Afghanistan, and she kept his nice ring on a chain around her neck the whole seven months.
"It's right here next to my heart," she said. "I kiss it every night."
Cecelia Nichols, wife of Sgt. David Shane Nichols, said she kept herself sane during the deployment by serving as the family readiness volunteer with the company, helping the Marine families with any problems that arose and planning family events. She said the job was rewarding but she is thrilled the Marines are finally back.
"It's been arduous -- very slow, very painstaking," Sgt. Nichols said of the journey back to Maryland. "It's like every time we had a line to stand in or something got delayed, it just felt like (the homecoming) was getting longer. But it's finally here."
Asked if seeing Cecelia was worth the wait, he quickly replied it was "well worth it."
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