Photo by Todd Weddle / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

Chloe Hubbard, 8, clings to her father, staff Sgt. Ryan Hubbard, after he and about 37 other members of the Missouri Air National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing returned from Afghanistan Monday afternoon. The group had been deployed for about 45 days.

Eight-year-old Chloe Hubbard shrieked Monday as she caught a glimpse of her father waving from a military bus. Other eager families stood beside her jumping up and down, waving banners and snapping pictures as the bus passed on the runway.

The bus stopped at the mess hall. Ryan Hubbard, a 28-year old crew chief, rounded a corner and saw Chloe and other family members.

“I missed you, Daddy. Are we going to swim when we get home?” Chloe asked, hugging her father.

Mr. Hubbard helped prepare their pool prior to his deployment. He said they would swim together.

Mr. Hubbard was one of about 35 airmen of the Missouri Air National Guard’s 139th Airlift Wing to land at the guard base at Rosecrans Memorial Airport in St. Joseph on Monday after a nearly 45-day deployment in Afghanistan. Some members had been gone for up to 60 days.

The Labor Day welcoming was bigger than expected.

Commanders on the ground weren’t sure whether so many families had come out because they were off for the holiday or for the Italian food, which the Olive Garden catered.

The Airlift Wing received special accolades for taking part in the first-ever Howitzer drop in Afghanistan. They dropped a 155-mm canon to Army soldiers in a remote area that was riddled with explosives.

There was only one road in and out of the area where Army solders were fighting, said 1st Lt. Mark Hanna, a co-pilot of the C-130H Hercules that delivered the 20-ton drop in August.

He said trucking in a Howitzer would have exposed troops to improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. An airdrop was the safest delivery.

“It went exactly as we had trained, start to finish,” said Mr. Hanna, who was headed for a commercial flight to Texas to attend his younger brother’s graduation from basic training.

Capt. Nicholas Kahler, a navigator on the airdrop, said the heavy payload mission was successful because of the Airlift’s specialized training. He was welcomed home by his nearly 2-year-old grandson, Carter Bruce.

“It always feels good to be back. We’re hopefully back for quite a while,” he said.

Ahmad Safi can be reached

at ahmadsafi@npgco.com.