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1st BCT brings home colors
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1BCT return

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The thunderclap was louder than any saluting battery as the Third Infantry Division's First Brigade Combat Team officially returned to Fort Stewart Tuesday during a a Cottrell Field ceremony.
To individuals -- thousands of them -- welcoming soldiers back home is an intensely personal reunion with family and friends.
But, as with so many Army activities, it is accompanied by formality. The uncasing-of-colors ceremony marked the 1st BCT return from Iraq Tuesday with the redeployment of its commander Col. John Charlton.
About 300 dog-faced soldiers returned Tuesday afternoon with another flight expected in the evening. About 1,000 soldiers have returned from Iraq, and flights are scheduled for the next three days.
Charlton told reporters Al Anbar province, where he and his soldiers had been stationed, was "a very, very dangerous place" when they arrived more than a year ago.  
The area is so stable now, the colonel said, "Our biggest problem is traffic."
"We worked to get the acceptance of the civilian population," Charlton explained. Whatever they needed, we worked to get it for them, whether it was rice, or cooking oil or portable generators..."
The 1st BCT was welcomed by Fort Stewart's garrison commander, Col. Todd Buchs, who said they were "a showcase of jointness and modularity."
Under the Army's modular concept, the brigade combat team was part of the command of a Marine major general.
Although the sudden thundershower thoroughly drenched the returning soldiers and many spectators, the sun re-emerged at the end of the welcome home, almost as if scripted.
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