Less than two months after two Iowa National Guard soldiers were killed in Syria, about 250 of their fellow guardsmen walked back onto Iowa soil to applause and waiting families inside a hangar at the Des Moines International Airport.
The ceremony on Wednesday, Feb. 11 marked one of several phased returns for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, which has been deployed to the Middle East in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. Another group of soldiers returned Wednesday during a separate ceremony in Sioux City.
At the 132d Wing in Des Moines, children pressed their faces to the small windows lining the hangar walls, trying to spot movement on the tarmac where two Allegiant planes carrying the soldiers had just arrived.
The unseasonably warm, sunny afternoon stood in contrast to the bitter cold that had gripped Iowa in recent weeks.
When the hangar doors opened, soldiers marched in single file in front of a massive American flag draped inside, pausing for a moment of silence and prayer before being released to reunite with loved ones who rushed forward with signs and open arms.
“This reunion of families and friends is always so powerful to witness, and it’s an important reminder that while you supported your nation overseas, your loved ones did the same here at home, and today they get their heroes back,” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds told the crowd.
Adjutant Gen. Stephen Osborn added, “We’re so proud of every one of you, what you’ve done, your service, your professionalism and your continued commitment. You answered the call without hesitation.”
The homecomings come after the deaths of Iowa National Guard Staff Sgts. William Nathaniel “Nate” Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, and Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, who were killed Dec. 13 near Palmyra, Syria, alongside a civilian interpreter from Michigan by a suspected “lone ISIS gunman.” Three additional Iowa National Guard soldiers were wounded and survived.
Reunions months in the making
18-month-old Juniper Birdwell darted across the concrete floor in a red dress, slipping from her mother’s grasp as her father knelt to catch her.
Camry Birdwell, 22, of Mason City, watched the reunion unfold with a hand over her mouth. Her husband, Isaiah Birdwell, 25, of Des Moines, had been deployed for most of their daughter’s life.
“It didn’t feel real until I saw him walk in,” Camry Birdwell said, adding that it had been 10 months since she last saw Isaiah and did not expect he’d return until April. “When he left, [Juniper] didn’t know how to walk, she had just started crawling, didn’t have any teeth. Now she runs, has a mouthful of teeth, talks.”
Isaiah Birdwell lifted Juniper into his arms as she tugged at his uniform collar.
“It’s incredible. I mean, when I left she didn’t have hair, she couldn’t say anything and now she’s just running around. It’s surreal,” he said.
Isaiah said he learned of the deployment around the same time he and Camry knew Juniper was on the way. “I had always signed up to serve, and it didn’t feel right for me to try to bail out on the deployment. I got the chance to go out and serve and be with my boys and do the job that I’m supposed to do.”
Nearby, Patricia Newton, 37, of Omaha, Nebraska, stood holding her 3-year-old daughter, Grace, who wrapped her arms tightly around her mother’s neck. Newton had been deployed to Erbil, Iraq.
“I’m feeling so much joy, so happy to be home,” Newton said. “It’s been a missing piece, I’ve missed her every day, so I’m just so happy to be back with her.”
Newton said her plans now are simple: “be present for Grace,” take a beach vacation and visit her parents.
“Days are hard, but you have a mission and you stay focused on that, you just stay thankful for the support system that are there for every call and encourage you,” she said.
Across the hangar, Heath Long, 20, of Cedar Rapids, hugged Maybelle Mason, 19, also of Cedar Rapids. Long said returning to Iraq carried personal meaning – his father deployed there in 2003 and 2004.
“I’m feeling pretty good to be back home,” Long said. “It’s been long but at the same time it kind of flew by.”
He described periods of limited communication overseas in the wake of the Palmyra, Syria, attack that killed two Iowa National Guard soldiers.
“We had a little bit of a blackout. It was a little hard not being able to tell them what was going on, letting them know I was safe,” he said.
Mason said the silence during those weeks was the hardest part.
“I wouldn’t say it was difficult. It was just painful, it was just very sad not being able to talk to somebody that you love,” she said. “Everything in the Army scares me, it’s just how I am. I care so much about him and don’t want anything to happen to him, and especially hearing about the lost soldiers was definitely terrifying, but I just had faith.”
The couple’s goals now, they said, are getting married, getting a house, and moving to Tennessee.
Among the second group to arrive was Alan Johnson, 31, of Baxter, who had deployed to Iraq. He hugged his fiancée, Jenna Borcherding, 28, of Des Moines, as soon as he was released.
Borcherding said the reunion was “indescribable,” adding that the couple is getting married next week and that Johnson’s return felt like “the best wedding gift.”
Valerey Harris, 23, of Des Moines, said she felt pride returning as a Hispanic National Guard member after serving in Erbil.
“I feel really happy to be back home, it feels super unreal,” she said, adding she “didn’t expect to like Iraq as much as I did” and would “go back in a heartbeat,” saying she appreciated the people and the community she encountered there.
The mission and the drawdown
Lt. Col. Matt Guerttman, commander of the 1st Battalion, 194th Field Artillery, said his unit’s primary overseas mission was force protection at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq, including gate screening, perimeter security, guard towers and quick-reaction response if incidents occurred.
The battalion also supported broader U.S. Central Command efforts to scale back base operations and carry out an orderly withdrawal of forces.
“Our mission was to close down Al Asad,” Guerttman said, an objective that is now complete, with the base returned to local Iraqi control following the withdrawal.
He said the campaign against ISIS, known as Operation Inherent Resolve, is publicly expected to wind down around June 2026, with forces shrinking gradually.
Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst and Rep. Zach Nunn have introduced legislation to honor the soldiers killed. Under the measure, backed by the state’s full congressional delegation, the Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Des Moines would be renamed the “Staff Sergeant Edgar Torres-Tovar VA Clinic,” and the community-based outpatient clinic in Marshalltown the “Staff Sergeant William Nathaniel Howard VA Clinic.”
Iowa National Guard members, Guerttman said, have been deployed across four Middle Eastern countries — Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Kuwait — with a small contingent currently overseas expected to deploy to Bahrain in support of CENTCOM.
Guerttman said Syria alone accounted for roughly 800 of the approximately 1,800 Iowa National Guard members in the region at one point, though troop levels have since begun to diminish.
Large groups of Iowa National Guard soldiers are expected to continue returning through mid- to late-April, he said, with the brigade-level presence largely concluding by then, though some soldiers from other units may remain in support roles.
Guerttman himself was deployed in Iraq and said, “It feels good to be home.”
Nick El Hajj is a reporter at the Register. He can be reached at nelhajj@gannett.com. Follow him on X at @nick_el_hajj.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa National Guard soldiers return home months after Syria attack
Reporting by Nick El Hajj, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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