Hundreds welcome Charlie Co. home

GAINESVILLE - Hundreds of people turned out Saturday morning to welcome home a group of Army National Guard soldiers from Gainesville who recently spent a year in Afghanistan.

The soldiers, part of the Georgia Army National Guard's 48th Brigade, returned home in the spring. They had been deployed to Afghanistan about a year earlier. During that time, eight members of the 48th were killed in action. One of them was a Hall County man... Maj. Kevin Jenrette of Lula. He died in early June last year and was laid to rest a few days later near his hometown.

This was the second war zone overseas deployment for Charlie Company since 2001. About five years ago, members of the unit spent time in Iraq.

Members of Charlie Company were greeted by cheering, flag-waving people along the short route from their armory on Alta Vista Road to Lakeshore Mall where a special ceremony was held in honor of them.

Led by the Hall County Sheriff's Office Honor Guard, it included the soldiers, themselves, then a couple of Army vehicles and a few law enforcement cars.

Well-wishers lined the streets, stood in the doorways and parking lots of businesses... many of them decked out in red-white-and-blue, which the organizers, Patriots' Call, had urged.

Some brought their own American flags to wave. Others were given one by a group of Boy Scouts and still others ducked into stores along the route to buy one.

The fence separating the parking lot at Washington Square, a shopping center at Alta Vista Road and John Morrow Parkway, was adorned with yellow ribbons in honor of the returning troops. The dozen or so flag poles on Pearl Nix Parkway next to Gainesville High School and mostly out of view of the parade route were each flying an American flag Saturday in honor of Charlie Company.

The entourage then entered the Lakeshore Mall parking lot under the extended ladders of two City of Gainesville Fire Department ladder trucks, American flags flapping in the breeze at the pinnacle of the laddered archway.

Inside the Mall the soldiers and a crowd of friends and family members listened as Lt. Col. Matthew Smith, Commander of the 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry, told everyone how important the support Charlie Company received from the home front was.

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