Still, as he walked out of the Southwest Airlines terminal at Salt Lake International Airport Saturday afternoon, the Ogden soldier could spare a smile for a welcome that stood out amid the patriotic banners and cheers.

Wearing matching "Thank You for Our Freedom" T-shirts bearing his face, Lucero's mother, Georgia; his girlfriend, Maria Sandoval; and her parents, Santiago and Elaine, quickly engulfed the G.I. in sobs and hugs.

The words came hard. Maybe it was a choice between silence, or tears.

"It was just so nice to see my family," Lucero finally said, then walked off, still in a group embrace, to get his luggage.

The T-shirts were Maria's idea.

"We want to give him a special welcome home, show him we're very proud," she said. "It's been so long. You worry every day about their safety."

Santiago Sandoval, a Vietnam-era Army veteran, remembers a different sort of welcome for troops returning from that unpopular war some 40 years ago. Vietnam veterans, at best, might be ignored; at worst, spat upon and cursed.

But for the members of the 146th, mobilized in March 2005 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, friends and relatives waited with banners reading "Job Well Done" and "Our Heroes - We Love U!" and cheered each of the 16 troops that arrived on Southwest Airlines Flight 1587.

"This is the way it should be," the former Sgt. Sandoval said. "They should get welcomed back as heroes."

In all, 169 members of the unit were to return home Saturday to Utah via Fort Bliss, Texas, on five commercial aircraft. A final plane bearing seven soldiers of the 146th was to arrive this morning.

Army Reserve spokeswoman Cindy Otis said the 146th finished its mission of transporting fuel, supplies and ammunition throughout Iraq with no members killed.

There some injuries, however.

One was Staff Sgt. "Red" Armfield, of Roy. With his wife, Marie, he greeted troops on crutches, a cast protecting an ankle fractured when an Army truck tire rolled over his foot in an Iraqi base motor pool. The accident sent him stateside three months ago after 12 months away from home.

"It was hard leaving my guys over there," Armfield said, recalling the camaraderie of misery that 130-degree days, desert storms and Iraqi sand fleas can bring. "I'd look around over there at the land and wonder what was worth fighting for."

It wasn't the sand, the climate or the joy of living in tents. You fought for your men, and the integrity of a nation.

"We're in a situation over there now where we can't just pack up and leave," he said. "We need to finish the job."

Still, the 42-year-old Armfield knows his limits.

"You can bet your bottom dollar that I won't be volunteering to go over there again," he laughed.

Spc. Lorin Lane's family drove in from Kemmerer, Wyo. to welcome him back. Lane washed big rigs for a trucking company when he was home, and in the Army, he drove loads of fuel. On Saturday, he smiled wide as he dove into their arms.

"Thank the gods!" he said.

"You're grounded," quipped his mother, Paulette Roberts.

None of the soldiers The Salt Lake Tribune talked to had changed their support for the war, but in Lane's and others' cases, any enthusiasm had been tempered by experience in Iraq's combat zones.

"I still think it's good we're over there helping the Iraqi people and all," Lane said. "But they don't seem to be putting that much effort into what we're trying to give them."

Janis Furlow of Layton came early Saturday to welcome the 146th's troops as they trickled in. Her own husband, Chief Warrant Officer Dennis Furlow, wasn't to arrive until the night's last flight.

Still, she said it was worth the wait to give Furlow, a 58-year-old Vietnam veteran and grandfather of six who volunteered for duty in Iraq, what he most missed in a long military career: a real welcome home.

"He's always felt cheated," she said. "This time, he gets the homecoming of a hero."

bmims@sltrib.com