By Tony Cook
Post staff reporter
Cincinnati Post,ÊOH
Spec. Marci Baillio is adjusting to life at home after returning from Iraq, where she drove trucks and operated a .50-caliber machine gun from the back of a Hummer for 14 months.
"We were a little distraught not hearing the bombs," she said of her return home Friday. "Every now and then, I'm still looking through the wood line to see if there's an improvised explosive device there."
But the thousands of area residents who attended a homecoming parade Saturday in Bethel for Felicity- and Hamilton-based members of the Ohio National Guard 216th Engineering Battalion made the transition a lot easier, said Baillio.
"Our sole mission was to be a moving target. We took a lot of fire," said the 23-year-old Goshen resident. "A lot of people forgot why we were over there, just seeing everything that's horrible over there. It's definitely the respect we needed."
Baillio, a member of the 216th who transferred temporarily to the 1489th Transportation Company, was one of the battalion's last soldiers to return home. Most of the more than 60 soldiers who participated in the parade returned in early or mid-February after spending a year in Iraq.
Soldiers and their families smiled, cried and waved to those along the parade route from the back of pickup trucks donated by local dealerships as they made their way down Ohio 125.
"There's still tears," said Baillio's father, John Plummer, 54, of Goshen. "But it's better than a voice on the phone at 3:30 in the morning."
His wife, Nancy Plummer, 51, agreed.
"I missed the touch," she said, hugging her daughter.
The 216th operated mostly out of Tikrit, about 100 miles north of Baghdad.
Three soldiers from the battalion died and dozens of others were injured, including Baillio's platoon sergeant, Sgt. Paul Bronhauer. A grenade attack left him with partial hearing loss and wounds from 300 pieces of shrapnel.
Both parade organizers and soldiers were floored by the turnout.
"I'm quite surprised. I really didn't expect all this attention," said Staff Sgt. Todd Pfeffer, 35, of Ripley. "It's quite a change, but it's a nice change. It's great to be back."
His wife, Aimee Pfeffer, said she's dealing well with her husband's return.
"He said he's not used to making any decisions because the Army makes all of them for him," she said. "I kind of like that."
Bethel barber Bob Boothby, 71, started working to organize the parade in October.
"I felt the boys needed to have support when they got home as well as over there," he said. "It's something the Vietnam boys never got."
Boothby called or visited about 40 Êchurches to garner attention for the event and contacted scores of residents and truck dealerships to guarantee a pickup truck for every soldier.
"Everybody said 'yes'; nobody said 'no,'" he said. "I could have had 200 trucks if I needed them."
The fanfare included flags, balloons, salutes and shouts of "thank you."
Soldiers passed under a flag-draped archway made of ladders extended from Bethel-Tate and Washington Township fire trucks.
Among those at the homecoming were Keith and Carolyn Maupin, parents of Keith "Matt" Maupin, a 20-year-old Army specialist who was taken hostage after his convoy was attacked in April.
"We came up to tell them welcome home and thanks," said Keith Maupin. "They did their job and it's time to come home. When Matt's job is done, he'll be home, too."
Carolyn Maupin said a military committee is meeting next month to decide if Matt's status should be changed. Right now, he's the only U.S. soldier classified as captured.
"I'm still holding on. I'm hoping they'll keep it the same," she said. "Maybe with our luck, he'll be back before they do that."
Congressman Rob Portman, R-Ohio, of Terrace Park, who recently returned from a weekend visit to Iraq, was also in attendance. He said one high-ranking division officer called the 216th the "workhorse of the division."
"These people cleared roads of improvised explosive devices and they lost three of their ranks," said Portman. "These folks were very much a part of the success our troops have had in changing that country from a brutal dictatorship to a democracy."
Mark Wichard, 49, owner of Wichard Oil in Bethel, watched the procession with his wife from his gas station and garage on Ohio 125. They cooked hot dogs and handed them out to those who lined the street.
"Everyone was real thankful for the troops; you could tell by the crowd's reaction," said Wichard, who coached Little League baseball with one of the soldiers, Sgt. Dion Pangello. "It's great that a small town can put on a big parade like this."
©2005 The Cincinnati Post, an E.W. Scripps newspaper