Guard unit welcomed home

D.C. officials, relatives and friends yesterday honored Army National Guardsmen, who expressed joy upon returning home after a year in Iraq, but had varied opinions about whether U.S. troops should remain there.

“It was a challenge to be over there,” said Sgt. Anthony McKinney, a full-time guardsman from Southeast whose wife and four children welcomed him home. He said it felt good to be back after being away from home for a year.

Sgt. McKinney was among about 150 members of the 547th Transportation Company who were greeted at the D.C. Armory yesterday by D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, several hundred relatives, friends and fellow guardsmen.

Spc. Albert Day, 39, holding his son, Daniel, 2, said it felt “wonderful” to be home, adding that the United States stayed too long after liberating Iraqi citizens from the rule of Saddam Hussein.

“I’ll be honest. I personally didn’t feel it was worth it to force democracy on a country that never had a democracy like the United States,” said Spc. Day, who came home in July. “We got Saddam out, but we overstepped our boundaries by trying to [enforce] democracy.”

Sgt. Melvin Roy, 42, of Blackstone, Va., a supply sergeant, who will return to his base at Fort Pickett, Va., was ambivalent about whether there is just cause for war.

“It’s not for me to say,” said Sgt. Roy, who was greeted by his four sons and wife — a soldier also stationed at Fort Pickett. “I can’t second-guess the president. I get paid to do my job, and that’s it.”

But Sgt. Awadit Ramdat, 45, a 12-year veteran of the Guard, called the war “just.”

“Saddam was ruthless and brutal,” said Sgt. Ramdat, an assistant manager at Kuna Restaurant in Northwest. “Justice was served to the Iraqi people.”

Each returning troop member received an American flag in a display case, a letter of commendation and commemorative coins in honor of their service.

The 547th is the only D.C. Guard unit deployed in Iraq and the only one sent to Iraq during the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The company, which returned last week after being in Iraq since last April, suffered only one casualty during its deployment.

Spc. Darryl T. Dent, 21, was killed Aug. 26 by a makeshift explosive device while on convoy duty. Two other members of the unit were wounded in the attack.

Spc. Dent’s father accepted an award on his son’s behalf.