Ryan Cleckner

After three-and-a-half years in the Army, Sgt. Ryan Cleckner was excited to go to Afghanistan and fight in the war against terror.

But, arriving from his three-month deployment Friday afternoon at Hunter Army Airfield, Cleckner said he didn’t want to take too much credit for what he did.

“It’s our job. We did what we were supposed to do,” said Cleckner, of Phoenix, Ariz. “I was doing what I signed up to do.”

One of the best parts, he said, was actually getting to fight.

“Some people wait their whole careers to go into combat, and I got to go before the end of my first enlistment,” Cleckner said. “You can only train for the game so long before you want to play in it.”

Cleckner loaded up on generic NyQuil and sleeping pills for the 20-hour flight back to the United States. Unlike many of his fellow soldiers, he looked remarkably well-rested.

The Rangers’ family members, though, looked anxious.

After hours waiting in the sun, the Rangers’ loved ones finally saw the commercial jet touch down at Hunter about 2:10 p.m.

But for the families awaiting their sons, husbands, brothers and boyfriends, the anticipation would continue.

First, U.S. Customs had to inspect the plane and its contents. That took about 40 minutes.

Then, the men from the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, emerged from the plane, walking single-file down the steps to the tarmac.

The site of the first Ranger walking through the door brought shrieks of joy from the crowd, many dressed in red, white and blue and carrying the American flag in various sizes.

With signs as simple as “Welcome home, Rangers,” written in thick black marker, to a large one with “Over here, Dad,” decorated with a black-and-white picture of a little girl, to another written in gold and purple glitter, “We missed you, Daddy,” the families waved to the Rangers in their tan uniforms.

As the soldiers continued to stream off the plane, the cheer of the crowd would rise and fall. Whooping and hollering, applause and cries were loud, then they’d fade for a few seconds as the Rangers would keep coming.

“Oh, no, I thought that was it,” said Staff Sgt. Melanie Hurst, when there was a break in the soldiers coming off the plane.

Hurst was waiting for her husband, Mark.

Like everyone else, though, the wait would continue, at least for a few more minutes.

After everyone was finally off the plane, the Rangers got in formation and marched into a hangar, where they listened to a short speech, before finally getting their hugs and kisses, balloons and roses.

Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Dillingham, of Elkton, Ky., was greeted by his wife, April.

While deployed in Afghanistan, Rangers were allowed to have one 10-minute phone call each week.

Dillingham used one of his to ask his wife to have shrimp for dinner for his return home.

Although he was happy to be home, Dillingham shared the feelings of many of the Rangers in his excitement to go to battle.

“It was an honor to be a part of a historical event of this proportion,” he said. “Only two or three times a century do we get to fight the enemy on the battlefield and beat them.”During the first month of the deployment, Dillingham said, accommodations were sparse. The Rangers couldn’t get showers and had to wash their armpits using Handi-wipes. They did laundry in buckets.

Once more soldiers came in and got settled, Dillingham said they got two washing machines for laundry.

The returning Rangers, who may be most well-known for their high-and-tights, had hair that for many was out of control. It was long, and for some soldiers, really curly.

Returning Staff Sgt. Paul Taylor wasn’t looking forward to getting his hair cut.

“This is the longest my hair’s been in the last nine years,” Taylor said. “It’s a nice change to look in the mirror and see all this hair.”

There were a lot of good things for Taylor about being in Afghanistan.

He said the country was quite scenic, and he enjoyed seeing his men in action and using their training.

The worst part, he said, was losing three Rangers — Specialist Marc A. Anderson; Cpl. Matthew A. Commons; and Sgt. Bradley S. Crose — who died March 3 during combat.

“To me, it was a tremendous loss,” Taylor said. “I knew they died doing what they wanted to do, so I was kind of comforted by that.”

Reporter Paula Reed Ward can be reached at 652-0360 or at paulaw @ savannahnow.com.

About the soldiers

About 200 Army Rangers from the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield returned home Friday afternoon. The Rangers were deployed to Afghanistan in late December to fight in Operation Enduring Freedom.

During the deployment, three Rangers were killed.

On March 3, Spc. Marc A. Anderson, 30, Cpl. Matthew A. Commons, 21, and Sgt. Bradley S. Crose, 22, were killed during Operation Anaconda. The men were fighting the Taliban and al-Qaida when enemy gunfire forced down an MH-47 Chinook helicopter.

Source: http://old.savannahnow.com/stories/040602/LOCrangerhomecoming.shtml