This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Joy Jones was still walking from the parking lot toward the Utah Air National Guard Base runway to greet 1st Lt. Ryan Becker, her son-in-law, when tears started flowing.
Becker's wife Angie, meanwhile, remained dry-eyed — for good reason.
"I've no tears left," she said.
The 30-year-old Bountiful nurse gave birth to Mya, now 10 months old, while her husband served a 12-month deployment in southern Afghanistan.
Sunday morning's touchdown of a plane carrying 120 members of Utah National Guard's 118th Engineer Company was the day Becker had waited one year and three days for. Although her husband was at first hard to find among the crowd, the reunion was easy.
Not to mention joyful. After a long embrace with Angie, plus a hug for 3-year-old son Jaxon, Becker greeted the rare sight of Mya with a pink carnation. Counting a brief leave the 1st Platoon leader had in December, it was the second time Becker had seen his infant daughter.
"It's surreal to be back," Becker said. "Just the greatest feeling."
The welcome included live-band renditions of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me," U2's "With or Without You" and a line-up courtesy of the Patriot Guard Riders motorcycle club, all with poles waving United States flags.
Hovering over the many reunion hugs and tears in the airline hangar was the memory of one 118th Company member who didn't make it home. Sgt. 1st Class James Thode, a 14-year veteran police officer from Farmington, N.M., died in early December when a roadside bomb from insurgents exploded during a land-mine clearing operation in Afghanistan's Khowst province. He was the third Utah National Guardsman killed in Afghanistan, and the sixth to die in the line of duty. The 45-year-old sergeant is survived by a wife and two children.
Michael Gonzales, a 20-year-old specialist with the Company's 1st Platoon from Scottsdale, Ariz., said outsiders may see it as a success that all but one of the 120 members came home. To Company members, however, the loss of even one comrade leaves lasting sorrow.
Gonzales said he served as Thode's "gunner," and was posted to an observation point during the same mission the day Thode was killed.
"He was what made us the best we could be," Gonzales said. "All of us wish he could be here today."
Becker, who said he sometimes came within 25 meters of the kind of explosion that claimed Thode, said he would always remember his fellow Company member.
"Above all, I think I'll remember his professionalism," Becker said.
The 118th Engineer Company, also known as "Sappers," specialized in clearing roads of landmines and other improvised explosive devices (IEDs) so that Coalition troops could make their way into and around insurgent territory. The term derives from the French "sapeurs" of the French Foreign Legion and even prior to the invention of minefield explosives, when combat engineering troops built bridges and dug holes to breach enemy lines.
Sgt. 1st Class David Liddle, Utah Army National Guard, said a new unit of National Guard combat engineers from another state was flown to Afghanistan to replace the Utah National Guard's 118th Engineer Company even before its return to Salt Lake City.
"They try to make these replacements as seamless as possible," Liddle said.
The "Sapper" mission of eliminating roadside threats is considered one of the most dangerous among National Guard units serving in Afghanistan, Liddle said.
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