Greeters Give Troops a Taste of Maine Patriotism

BANGOR, Maine -- It was 2 p.m. on a winter Wednesday at Bangor International Airport -- home to just five commercial carriers, 20 flights a day, and two of the last non-chain airport concessions in America, "Coffee Shop" and "Lounge."

The greeters were waiting.

They were about 30 strong on this day, milling around anxiously in a crowd full of gray hair and caps that said "veteran." One man had a sweatshirt on that said, "Not as Lean, Not as Mean, But still a Marine."

For a long time, they kept an eye on the empty runway outside.

Finally, a white jet touched down.

They're here, somebody in the crowd said.

The greeters formed themselves into two parallel rows. Then they waited again for a few more minutes, flags at the ready. Somebody said this one had 269 onboard.

Then, the first light-brown desert camouflage uniform appeared at the end of the hallway, and the greeters started to cheer. When the men got close enough, they got hugs and handshakes of the you-just-won-the-state-championship type.

"Good afternoon," greeter Joanne Black, 68, told them when they came to her place in the line, "and welcome home."

Thus began the fast, eventful and entirely typical visit of the Marine Corps' Combat Logistics Regiment 25 to Bangor. After traveling from Iraq's Anbar province to Kuwait to Frankfurt, Germany, they had reached a place that takes very seriously its role as the first place many returning U.S. troops touch American soil.

Very seriously. Black said this was the 993rd time she had helped greet a military plane here.

"Every time they come around that corner up there, I get goose bumps, and the hair stands up on the back of my neck," she said.