Families, fellow soldiers welcome Oklahoma guardsmen home from Afghanistan

Officials with the Oklahoma Army National Guard said the soldiers, who were serving in Afghanistan, are the first of a dozen groups set to return to Oklahoma over the coming months as part of a demobilization process.

Maj. Gen. Myles Deering, the state's adjutant general, told the returning men and women to “absorb being home” and to be careful while celebrating their homecoming with friends and family.

“If you got a motorcycle, stay off of that thing for about 30 days,” Deering said. “Reintegration is not an event, it's a process.”

Deering, whose son serves in the military, said he understands the perspective of the worried family member as well as he does the soldier's.

“These families are part of what we are and who we are,” he said. “Families, we can't do what we do without you.”

Many of the troops had family members waiting at the reserve center on the freezing Saturday morning.

Tearful reunions were plentiful.

Spc. Kale Williams, of Edmond, was greeted by his fiancee, mother, older brother and other loved ones.