Spc. Jared Kolb moved among other soldiers and their families Wednesday afternoon in Fisher Armory, searching for his parents, sister, girlfriend and daughter.
When he spotted them on the west side of the building, Kolb, 24, smiled and scooped up his 3-month-old daughter, Haven, whom he was meeting for the first time.
"I can't describe it," Kolb said, giving Haven a quick kiss on the head. "It's awesome."
Kolb was one of 111 soldiers with the Arkansas Army National Guard's 216th Military Police Company who returned Wednesday from a six-month deployment in Afghanistan.
The soldiers landed at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field about 1 p.m., hopped on buses and rode directly to Fisher Armory in North Little Rock, where friends and families waited excitedly to welcome them home.
A couple of hundred people, most holding signs or clutching small American flags, cried and cheered when the soldiers marched into the building for their last formation.
"Tomorrow is a day we set aside for giving thanks," said Col. James Treece, commander of the National Guard's 87th Troop Command, in a brief ceremony. "I can tell you all I'm thankful for these soldiers -- that we as a nation still have brave men and women who are willing to put on that uniform and defend the Constitution of the United States when they're needed."
The 216th left from Fisher Armory on May 29. The soldiers spent several weeks at Fort Bliss in Texas before traveling in July to their post near Kabul, Afghanistan.
While overseas, the 216th's mission was internment and resettlement, according to the Fort Bliss Bugle, the Texas base's newspaper. The mission was turned over to Afghan authorities earlier this month, and the company returned Nov. 14 to the United States.
Maj. Gen. William Wofford, the state's adjutant general, greeted the returning soldiers at Fort Bliss, where they spent 12 days preparing for the return to Arkansas.
Arriving home the day before Thanksgiving was just luck, said Lt. Col. Matt Snead, spokesman for the Arkansas National Guard.
"We knew they were going to be released to come home, but we didn't know when they were coming back," Snead said. "It just worked out that way for them."
After the ceremony ended Wednesday, 21-year-old Kearius Jackson took off at a run to find and hug her boyfriend, Spc. Darryl Little.
"It took a lot of praying and trying not to worry and trying to keep his girl calm and telling her to take one day at a time," said Little's mother, Alice Little.
Alice Little described saying goodbye to her youngest child as "very scary."
"At the airport, I had to turn my back," Little said. "I was trying not to cry. As he was leaving, he looked back and gave that last wave, and then I cried. I went home to make his bed up, and I broke down. It hit me -- he's gone, this is it. I left the bed just as it was. I left his room just like he left it."
Darryl Little's father, Darry Little, predicted his son would first want to go to their Marion home, get in his Mustang GT and "crank it up."
"I want to go home and get in my bed," Darryl Little said when he greeted his family minutes later. "Or my car. I can't decide what to do first."
One other company with the Arkansas National Guard -- the 1038th Horizontal Construction Company -- remains overseas. The approximately 160 members of the 1038th are working to improve roads, drainage systems and fortifications at U.S. bases in Kuwait.
The company deployed in June for a nearly year-long mission.
"We almost have everybody home for the holidays," Snead said.
Kolb, cradling Haven, said being away when she was born was "hard to deal with."
Now that he's back -- and has met his daughter -- Kolb will celebrate by surprising his extended family at a Thanksgiving celebration today at his home in Greenwood.
"We're going to have lots of family -- not very many people know he's back," said Kolb's father, Mike Kolb. "We thought he wasn't going to be here until January, so this is exciting."
Metro on 11/27/2014