LINCOLN - As Calleen Hartig and her boys, Dalton, 8, Quintin, 7, and Collin, 5, waited outside the stadium at Haymarket Park in Lincoln Sunday morning, they kept a close watch on the horizon.
The Beatrice family was tingling with anticipation as they waited for the Patriot Guard and the bus carrying her husband, National Guard Sgt. 1st Class John Hartig, to pull into the parking lot on Sunday.
The Hartigs were among the thousands of people crowding outside the stadium, waiting to welcome home about 250 Nebraska National Guardsmen from the 1-167th Cavalry and 134th Infantry (Long-Range Surveillance) after a 22-month deployment.
As the time for reuniting soldiers and families approached, the parking lot contained a spectrum of colors and emotions: people lining the streets holding flags, Lincoln fire trucks flying the United States flag high in the air and family and friends dressed in red, white and blue grasping handmade signs welcoming the guardsmen home.
The last time Hartig saw her husband was exactly a year ago when he was on leave from Iraq.
“It's kind of weird to think you haven't seen him in one year,” she said.
Eager to have him home, Hartig said she hardly slept Saturday night.
Yet, she still awoke early Sunday morning to check on her coffee shop, Breakaway Coffeehouse on South Sixth Street, and ensure she and the children would be on time to watch the buses roll into Lincoln.
It was a crazy morning, but there wasn't any other place she would rather be, she said.
“There's so much emotion and anticipation,” Hartig said as she waited for her husband.
No stranger to deployments, Hartig said this was the third deployment her family has experienced in their 11 years of marriage - two deployments for him and one for her, said Hartig, a Nebraska Army National Guard veteran herself.
“Out of 11 years of marriage, we've been actually together about five,” she said.
With the Hartigs' gaze fixed firmly on the road, the cheers from the crowd intensified as the rumble of motorcycles grew louder and a bright red bus followed by four other buses turned the corner into the parking lot.
The crowd erupted into cheers and applause as the buses made the loop into the parking lot and came to a stop in front of the waiting family and friends.
On the first bus, Gov. Dave Heineman and his wife stepped off, closely followed by the returning Guard members.
The first soldier stepped off and was quickly greeted by a member of his family. Instantaneously, it became a rush for the buses as family members sought out their special soldier.
It wasn't long before Sgt. 1st Class John Hartig was spotted and the Hartig family waved and called out his name to get his attention.
The boys ran over to him and greeted and hugged him and began asking him a million questions.
“It's going to be a 101 questions all the way home,” Hartig smiled as she watched her boys.
For one son, Dalton, it was a bittersweet reunion with his dad as he looked up at him, with tears in his eyes and asked, “Can we go to my game now?”
Dalton, dressed in his baseball uniform, was going to miss a game in Papillion, but he was glad to see his dad.
It was Hartig's turn next as she, with the yellow rose he gave her in hand, quickly hugged her husband and welcomed John home.
It was a sweet reunion for many other families in the Sunland area as they welcomed soldiers home.
Almost two years ago, Sara Miley and her husband, Lee, of Beatrice turned the front porch light on and left it on for their son, Matt, after he was deployed to Iraq.
Sunday night, she was able to turn it off as she welcomed him home.
“I've had that porch light on since he left,” Sara Miley said, beaming from ear to ear with joy.“I want this for everyone that is waiting for someone to come home, to feel like I do today.”
Miley was met by family members decked out in white T-shirts emblazoned with his picture and the words “Miley Welcome Home” printed on them.
“I didn't know anything about the shirts,” Miley said as he smiled and stood with family members before the homecoming ceremony began.
Among the people waiting for Miley was his best friend, Joe Armstrong.
Miley had been scheduled to attend Armstrong's wedding in May and stand in as the best man. But because Miley's deployment was extended, he was unable to come.
Instead, he sent the next best thing, a video with a special message to his friend and his bride, Manalle Keefover, to be played at the ceremony.
Armstrong said that made their wedding extra special and one to remember.
“It was awesome,” Armstrong said. “It came from the heart.”
Even though Miley wasn't there in person, he was there in spirit, Armstrong said.
“He was the best man at my wedding, whether he was there or not,” Armstrong said.
SPC Dennis Sedlaceck of Liberty and a member of the 134th Infantry was surrounded by family who came out to welcome him home.
Sedlacek, the son of Janet and Allen Sedlacek of Liberty, said it was great road home as 500 members of the Patriot Guard escorted them from Omaha to Lincoln, stretching as far as three miles, and hundreds of people lined O Street in Lincoln to cheer them on home.
“It felt real good to know everyone was appreciated,” he said.
Sedlaceck's best friend and fellow guardsman, Tanner Hippen of Virginia, was also on the same bus.
“It was unbelievable,” Hippen, the son of Kent and Yvette Hippen, said. “I saw a lot of guys with tears in their eyes.”
For the next few days all both families plan to do is fish and spend time together, they said.
“We're taking one day at a time,” Kent Tanner said. “It's well deserved time off for them.”
Gerald Ideus of Beatrice welcomed home his son, Jerod, who has served with the 134th Infantry for 12 years.
He said while Jerod's current tour of duty has lasted almost two years, his son has not been home for four years, as he has been on active duty in Germany, Kuwait, Bosnia and Iraq.
“When I heard the news that he was coming home, the first thing that went through my mind was that it is about time,” Ideus said.
Even though his son has been in the military for some time, Ideus said Jerod's time in Iraq worried him and said the days between the weekly phone calls sometimes got long as a result.
“I remember when I heard the news stories about some of the violence north of Baghdad, I was a little concerned because I knew that was around where Jerod was stationed,” Ideus said.
“Things like that almost made you not want to listen to the news.”
Ideus said he and his family have no big celebration scheduled. Instead, he plans to just let Jerod reestablish contact with his friends and family.
“He has so many family members and friends who want to see him right now,” Ideus said. “For the next few days, he will just try to see who he wants to see. We're trying not to crowd him with all of this activity.”
Evelyn Nolte, grandmother of SPC Josh Kushen of Wymore, said she was also concerned when she learned her grandson was going to Iraq.
After reuniting with Kushen Sunday morning, she joked that her grandson never admitted to being scared while in Iraq, although he commented that he was on several occasions.
However, Kushen said waiting to come home was almost more stressful, especially with his fiancee, Amanda Nickerson, back home.
Now that he has returned to civilian life, he and Amanda plan to get married within the next two weeks.
“The waiting was really the worst thing that happened,” Kushen said. “I was relieved when I learned we were finally going to come home, but I'm sure it was much harder for Amanda.”
Nickerson said the waiting was difficult for her, especially when Kushen's tour of duty was extended in March.
“The whole experience was just horrible,” Nickerson said. “It seemed like his service just took forever.”
Someone else who knows what it is like to have a loved one in a foreign country is Megan Riggert, wife of Jared Riggert, who serves with the 1-167th Cavalry. Originally from Odell and Beatrice, respectively, the couple now live in Kearney.
As Jared's service in Iraq was his third deployment, Megan Riggert said she had mixed emotions when her husband was called to serve his country once again.
After hearing her husband was coming home after 22 months, she said she had a “mixture of excitement and nervousness.”
“It's always hard, but even though this tour focused on a more dangerous area, this one was much easier for me because you know he has been through it before (serving in Kuwait and Bosnia),” Riggert said.
“There is still a lot of fear though and you never know just what is going to happen.”
Michael Riggert, Jared's father, said Jared's return was a “long day coming” and commented service in the National Guard has become more hazardous than the days when he served from 1973 to 1983.
“We only dealt with things like tornadoes and bad storms,” Riggert said. “The only time we even left the state was when we had training.”
SSG Matt Starkey, Nebraska Army National Guard recruiting and retention NCO in Beatrice, said homecomings like the one in Lincoln mean a lot to the soldiers returning.
“It means that you've got the support of the community,” he said. “Whether you agree with the war or not, you've got to support the soldier.”
It is also something that is needed for the families, Starkey said.
He said the families in Southeast Nebraska affected by the deployment showed their strength and support, even with the extension on the deployment.
“The families did really well through the whole thing,” Starkey said. “The extension was really hard, but they just kept on driving.”
This is the largest whole unit of the Nebraska National Guard to be deployed which included many families from the Sunland area, he said.
He also many Guard members from Beatrice and the Sunland area remain deployed in Iraq. Many will return in the fall and some that recently left will return in a year, he said.