FORT CARSON, COLO. -- After a 14-month deployment, about 240 soldiers from the 1st Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment returned to the Mountain Post Wednesday evening, just in time to share the holidays.
"We're going to run up to him and hug him," explained Madison Salone.
"Most of all we're going to play with him," added her big sister Taylor Salone.
FOX21 News first introduced the public to the Salone family eight months ago when their father, Sergeant First Class Andre Salone, sent a flag flown on a mission in Iraq to his daughters' school.
That day Taylor Salone fought back tears and with a heavy sigh said her fellow classmates were happy for her. Tonight with a wider smile and a much lighter sigh you could see Taylor was happy.
Last year Salone was deployed during the holidays, which is what his wife Rhonda said makes the timing of his homecoming this year so special. "I'm nervous, I'm shaking, I'm really ready for him to come out here and give him a big hug and take him home and just eat and relax. We're really looking forward to this," said Rhonda.
"Looking forward to this"even if, as Madison points out, it means a bit more work around the house. "It's going to be really difficult for when my dad comes back because we have to clean our room every time it's messy," said Madison.
But it is something both girls and their father have been waiting the last 14 months for.
"It really can't be explained. If you've been away from your loved ones so long and missed them so much just talking to them on the phone every day and seeing how much they've grown and matured…just to see them here, ah, it seems like they've grown about five inches," said SFC Salone.
During their mission soldiers of the 1st Squadron, 6th Cavalry flew reconnaissance and security missions in support of the first brigade, 10th mountain division in Iraq.
Click on the movie camera/video icon to view the segment as it aired on FOX21 News.
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