Area troops' return likely on Tuesday

Troops from the 1140th Engineer Battalion have told family members that they'll probably be home early Tuesday morning.

Members of the engineering battalion, which has companies in Perryville, Jackson, Sikeston, Farmington and Cape Girardeau, arrived by airplane early Wednesday in Bangor, Maine, where a group of Maine "troop greeters" welcomed them with cell phones to call their families.

Lindsay Seabaugh's telephone rang at 3:21 a.m. Monday. It was her husband, Rodney, calling from Maine.

Rodney, who has seen his 1-year old baby only briefly while on leave, told his wife they were on their way to Fort Riley, Kan.

Capt. Tammy Spicer, a spokeswoman for the Missouri National Guard, said she could not confirm a precise time. She said the troops will spend a few days at Fort Riley to tie up loose ends.

"It's just like the mobilization they had before they went out," Spicer said. "They'll make sure everything is taken care of, like pay and that sort of thing, so when they get to the armory they will have nothing to worry about."

Spicer said nothing has been planned yet as far as a ceremony. Seabaugh said she had heard the troops preferred not to have a ceremony. They just wanted to go home.

Some plans are being made to line the route the 1140th takes into Cape Girardeau with ribbons and flags, but the route hasn't been determined, Spicer said. In Perryville, arrangements are being made for a police and fire department escort.

To commemorate the homecoming, the Southeast Missourian is printing full-page banners that the newspaper hopes residents and businesses will hang in their windows.

"This is something we wanted to do on our own to encourage people to be supportive," advertising manager Donna Denson said.

Many of the 1140th troops were able to call home immediately upon arriving in the United States, thanks to the Maine Troop Greeters, an outfit organized by Bill Knight, a Maine veteran of World War II and a member of the VFW.

Some 130 people are members of the group, and about 30 to 35 try to make it to meet every military flight, including those made in the wee hours of the morning. Knight said a cellular phone company provides the phones and service for free.

"That was pretty slick," said Rick Ebaugh, whose son, Eric, is with the 1140th. "It kind of reminds you of the Super Bowl ad where they're walking through the airport and they all start to clap."

Rick Ebaugh said the whole family will be there to greet his son, "no matter how early it is."

bmiller@semissourian.com

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