CLB-5 returns after 7-month deployment

Photo By Cpl. Khoa Pelczar | Cpl. Nicholas E. Wroten, engineer specialist with Engineer Company, Combat Logistics Battalion 5, 1st Marine Logistics Group (Forward), was greeted by his family and friends as he stepped off the bus on Camp Pendleton, Calif., Oct. 23. After a 7-month tour in Afghanistan, Wroten, 21, from Baltimore, just want to go home and relax with his family friends.  

CAMP PENDLETON, CA, UNITED STATES

10.23.2010

Story by Lance Cpl. Khoa Pelczar 

1st Marine Logistics Group

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – Most Marines would consider crying to be a sign of weakness, but for the occasion, tears were appropriate as they were a sign of joy.

Marines with Combat Logistics Battalion 5, 1st Marine Logistics Group (Forward), reunited with their friends and families here, Oct. 23. More than 600 Marines and sailors arrived back to the United States after completing a 7-month deployment to Afghanistan.

“I didn’t believe that we’re actually back in the States until I saw a palm tree as we landed,” said Seaman Michael Delmundo, corpsman with CLB-5, 1st MLG (FWD). “It felt like I was flying to another operating post; seeing the palm tree was a sign that told me I was no longer in a combat zone.”

Delmundo, 23, from San Jose, Calif., wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Most Marines and sailors of CLB-5, 1st MLG (FWD) had a doubts in their minds that they were really home. That uncer-tainty only went away when they saw their friends and families rushing to the buses to greet them.

“I didn’t recognize her. When I left, she was a few months pregnant; now she’s running toward me with a baby in her arms,” said Cpl. Nicholas E. Wroten, engineer specialist with Engineer Company, CLB-5, 1st MLG (FWD), who got to hold his newborn son for the first time.

As they reunited with their loved ones, nothing else in the world seemed to matter. Knowing how eager they were to go home and spend time with their families, the command didn’t wait long to sound the liberty bell and send them home for 96 hours of well-deserved time off.

Wroten, 21, from Baltimore, refused an offer to have a smoke with his buddy and said he wanted to “clear my lungs from all the desert sand” he had been inhaling throughout the deployment. In fact, Wroten just wanted to go home and be with his family.

As the moonlight shined brighter, the parking lot slowly emptied as Marines and sailors gathered their bags and headed home for the first time in a long time.

• Date Taken: 10.23.2010
• Date Posted: 11.16.2010 13:35
• Story ID: 60257
• Location: CAMP PENDLETON, CA, US