2 months ago
The City of Macon officially welcomed home more than 300 members of the 48th Brigade Friday.
The troops marched through downtown Macon in a parade Friday morning.
Thousands of members of the Macon-based Army National Guard brigade returned this spring from a year-long tour in Afghanistan.
The parade began at the Terminal Station on Cherry Street and continued to Cotton Avenue and First Street before ending at Macon City Hall where they were greeted by Mayor Robert Reichert, Gov. Sonny Perdue and other officials.
The commander of the 48th, Col. Lee Durham, said, "Almost 3 years ago, we started this odyssey when we got the call to deploy. During that time, the demands we asked of the families to take the soldiers and prepare them to deploy and deploy them were great. And the families stepped up and the soldiers stepped up and did a super job."
Durham presented Reichert with a native Afghan tribal headdress and declared him "an official member of the 48th Brigade tribe."
The Watson family from Warner Robins was one of the first in the stands at the parade.
Traci Watson says her two young kids are much happier now that their dad is back home, and the welcome home celebration means a lot to the military families.
She says, "it's great, it's good for the soldiers to have community support but it's also good for the families to get together."
First Sergeant Bruce Maddox lead the troops' formation through downtown.
He says, "it was nice having the people lined up on the sidewalk, yelling at us, welcoming us home."
Now he says, he focus is on spending time with his family.
His mother-in-law, Peggy Henderson, says she worried about Maddox while he was in Afghanistan.
She says, "I'm just so proud of him and all the men and women here who have served their country so well and they are our heros."
Then, 48th members and their families headed to a cookout at the Guard's Armory on Shurling Drive, East Macon.
Brigade Commander Col. Lee Durham says they lost eight soldiers in Afghanistan, but brought back more than 3,000.
He says the change of command for all battalions in the guard will happen in September.
On October 3, Colonel John King will relieve him as 48th Brigade Commander.
Durham says he is headed to a joint task force civil support unit in Norfolk, Virginia.
