Staff Sgt. Larry Saxman Jr. of the 1st Tank Battalion, Company D, 2nd Platoon, picks up his 10-month-old daughter Lily May, after coming home from a seven-month deployment with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, July 31, 2009.
More than 300 U.S. Marines and sailors of 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, are welcomed home from Fallujah, Iraq by cheering friends and family during their homecoming ceremony at Victory Field, Twentynine Palms, Calif., Aug. 3, 2009.
Sailors from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 11 are greeted by family members as they return home from operations in Europe, Southwest Asia, Southcom and Africa supporting Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom.



Thank you for using my photos, although I cannot take credit for the second one. (Where the woman is holding the sign stating ‘Our Hearts Are Happy.) That photo was by Cpl. Nicole A. LaVine.