CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Paloma Faircloth, left, hugged her husband, Cpl. Matthew Faircloth, yesterday after he landed at Kaneohe Marine Base. Faircloth was among 100 Marines and sailors attached to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, who returned from a seven-month tour in Iraq. Jessica Ponce, with camera, was meeting her brother Juan Ponce with her sister-in-law Elizabeth, right.
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Warm welcome
Families are overjoyed to be reunited when 100 Marines return home
Cpl. Alex Lambert and Staff Sgt. Buck Pierson cuddled their 4-month-old daughters for the first time yesterday as the latest group of Kaneohe Marines returned home after spending seven months in Iraq.
They were among the 100 Marines and sailors assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Regiment, who completed a seven-month deployment in Iraq.
By the end of the month, all of the nearly 1,000 Marines assigned to 3rd Battalion will be home.
The 3rd Battalion will be the third Kaneohe Bay battalion to return without losing a Marine during its combat tour. Last year, Marines assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and 1st Battalion, 12th Artillery Regiment, also were able to serve in Iraq without a mishap.
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
With her mother, Natalie, standing by, 4-month old Shayla Lambert met her father, Cpl. Alex Lambert, for the first time yesterday after he arrived home from a seven-month tour in Iraq. He was one of about 100 Marines attached to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Regiment, who landed at Kaneohe's Marine Base Hawaii yesterday.
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But even as one battalion of Marines stepped off a chartered commercial jet yesterday at Kaneohe Bay's flight line, its sister unit -- the nearly 1,000 members of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment -- was preparing to deploy to Iraq by the end of the month.
Maj. Mike Monbouvette, the 3rd Battalion's executive officer, said he believes "there has been progress" near Fallujah, where the 3rd Marines were assigned since August.
"The Iraqis have stepped up and are taking more control of the local situation," he said.
He said the highlights of the past seven months have been to watch the Iraqis take a bigger part in the security of the area.
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Cpl. Matthew Faircloth landed at Kaneohe Marine Base Headquarters yesterday upon his return from Iraq.
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But for many of the family members of the returning Marines, the good news was that they were home and in one piece.
"It's about time," said Paloma Faircloth, whose husband, Cpl. Matthew Faircloth, was the first Marine off the ATA jet and who ran to the arms of his wife.
Natalie Lambert said that her husband, Alex, had only seen pictures of their 4-month-old daughter, Shayla.
"But she knows his voice," said Natalie Lambert, "since he was able to call every other day."
After Alex Lambert left Kaneohe in August, "family and friends helped out," she said, "but it will definitely be better now that he is home."
