Families welcome members of the 48th Brigade as they return home.
Families all over Central Georgia welcomed home their loved ones, as about 500 members of the 48th Brigade began returning home from Afghanistan early Tuesday morning.
More soldiers are scheduled to touch down in Savannah on Wednesday.
Shelley Huber's husband will be one of those returning soldiers.
"I'm more of a planner than most," says Huber, of her husband Paul's Wednesday homecoming. "But that particular moment I don't think it needs to be planned. I think it's going to happen the way it needs to."
As Huber looks through her inbox, she notes there are nine months-worth of emails from Paul. She says she's tried to save them all.
"I've been in the uniform for 24 years, and I've been deployed," says Huber. "I didn't think it would be such a difficult situation, but it's probably been one of the hardest years of my life."
She says all the emails, phone calls, and chats via Skype are nothing compared to hearing "I love you" in person.
"You just have to look forward to the time when you're together again because I literally felt like my heart broke when he left," she says.
The couple has been married for about ten and a half years, and both being in the 48th Brigade, Huber says they've lived together for about four of them.
"Because of the different missions we've each had and the two years before he was deployed he was at Little Rock, Arkansas at the National Guard Professional Education Center as an instructor," Huber says.
She says now they can finally have that time together they've waited for.
"It's not like Christmas where you wake up Christmas day and everything's over with at the end of the day," says Huber. "This is a whole new chapter of our lives."
A new chapter, she says, that includes "simple things" that most married couples look forward to.
"Plant the garden, and play with the animals, and spend time with our children. We have two grandchildren," says Huber.
The pair also plans to renew their vows in May.
She says they'll have seven weeks together before he reports back to Little Rock to resume his job.
"We've learned for a lot of different reasons over the years that you just make the best of every minute you're together, no matter what it is," she says.
Army National Guard units are scheduled to fly into Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah again on Wednesday.
They include:
- The Macon-based headquarters battalion
- The 48th Brigade Special Troops battalion, also based in Macon
- The Forsyth-based 148th Brigade support battalion.