{"id":55128,"date":"2026-04-07T04:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/55128\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T04:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:40:09","slug":"national-guard-members-return-home-from-syria-deployment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/55128\/","title":{"rendered":"National Guard members return home from Syria deployment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGAME SCORING RECORD TWICE THIS SEASON. WELL, 60 IOWA NATIONAL GUARD SOLDIERS ARE BACK HOME TONIGHT FROM THE MIDDLE EAST. THEY ARRIVED AT THE AIRPORT IN CEDAR RAPIDS TO THIS RECEPTION THIS AFTERNOON. WELCOME HOME RED BULL. THESE NATIONAL GUARD SOLDIERS HAVE BEEN OVERSEAS IN SYRIA FOR NEARLY A YEAR AS PART OF OPERATION INHERENT RESOLVE. THEY MADE STOPS IN GERMANY AND TEXAS BEFORE THEY MADE IT HERE TO IOWA. TODAY, FAMILIES AT THE CEREMONY SAY THEY\u2019RE GRATEFUL TO HAVE THEIR LOVED ONES HOME SAFE. ONE COMBAT MEDIC SAYS IT MEANS A LOT TO COME HOME AND RELAX AFTER BEING IN A HOSTILE AREA. EVERYBODY IS LIKE TALKING ABOUT HOW, WOW, THIS IS THIS IS LIKE A DREAM AND IT\u2019S NOT REAL. I\u2019M ACTUALLY STILL AT THE BASE BACK IN SYRIA. THIS IS THE REAL THING. BUT AND THEN WHEN THEY SAW THEIR FAMILIES, IT WAS KIND OF LIKE A RELIEF WHEN WE LANDED ON THE GROUND AND WE TOOK OFF IN THE AIR, IT WAS JUST LIKE EVERY STEP THAT WE GOT CLOSER TO, IT JUST GOT MORE AND MORE RELAXED AND A LITTLE BIT MORE EXCITED. AND, YOU KNOW, BEFORE. AND WE\u2019RE ALSO GLAD THEY\u2019RE HOME. A WELCOME HOME CEREMO\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

‘Like a dream’: National Guard members return home from Middle East deployment<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"KCCI<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUpdated: 11:19 PM EDT Apr 5, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\tEditorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSixty Iowa National Guard members returned home Thursday afternoon after nearly a year in Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.They arrived at the Cedar Rapids airport, having made stops in Germany and Texas before reaching Iowa.Families at the ceremony expressed their gratitude for having their loved ones home safe. One combat medic shared the emotional experience of returning home.”Everybody was talking about how, ‘Wow, this is like a dream, it’s not real, I’m actually still at the base back in Syria, like this isn’t a real thing,’ but when they saw their families it was kind of like, it was like every step that we got closer to it just got more and more relaxed and a little bit more excited than before,” the combat medic said.A welcome home ceremony for 140 troops is expected to be announced in the coming days.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Sixty Iowa National Guard members returned home Thursday afternoon after nearly a year in Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.<\/p>\n

They arrived at the Cedar Rapids airport, having made stops in Germany and Texas before reaching Iowa.<\/p>\n

Families at the ceremony expressed their gratitude for having their loved ones home safe. One combat medic shared the emotional experience of returning home.<\/p>\n

“Everybody was talking about how, ‘Wow, this is like a dream, it’s not real, I’m actually still at the base back in Syria, like this isn’t a real thing,’ but when they saw their families it was kind of like, it was like every step that we got closer to it just got more and more relaxed and a little bit more excited than before,” the combat medic said.<\/p>\n

A welcome home ceremony for 140 troops is expected to be announced in the coming days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAME SCORING RECORD TWICE THIS SEASON. WELL, 60 IOWA NATIONAL GUARD SOLDIERS ARE BACK HOME TONIGHT FROM THE…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[20374,20372,20369,21796,20375,2990,537,20373,1586,20368,6779,21795,20371,4436,20370,95,20367,12180,20376,878],"class_list":{"0":"post-55128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-syria","8":"tag-cedar-rapids-airport","9":"tag-ceremony","10":"tag-combat-medic","11":"tag-dream","12":"tag-emotional-experience","13":"tag-family","14":"tag-germany","15":"tag-gratitude","16":"tag-iowa","17":"tag-iowa-national-guard-member","18":"tag-mpnd","19":"tag-national-guard-member","20":"tag-operation-inherent-resolve","21":"tag-part","22":"tag-stop","23":"tag-syria","24":"tag-syria-deployment","25":"tag-texas","26":"tag-welcome-home-ceremony","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116361587872890222","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}