BANGOR – They consider themselves ordinary people but what they’ve done is extraordinary, based on letters from grateful troops and their loved ones that have poured in from all over the country.

Often mobilized with just a few hours’ notice, the troop greeters at Bangor International Airport are among the first people that U.S. troops encounter upon returning from Iraq, Afghanistan and other military hot spots around the globe.

From Greater Bangor as well as outlying areas, like Milo, Millinocket, Brooksville and Corinth, they stand ready to offer returning military personnel hugs, handshakes, cookies and cellular telephones, among other things.

On Wednesday, BIA was host for a reception designed to say thank you to the dozens of Mainers who’ve served as troop greeters since the movement began with Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s through today’s Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Representatives of U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, BIA Director Rebecca Hupp and Bangor Mayor Dan Tremble were among those who expressed their thanks to the greeters, to the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce – which helped organize the greeting sessions – and to the businesses that supported the effort.

Mayor Dan Tremble, who presented a City Council resolve applauding the greeters, said that the city and its airport had received letters of thanks for the greeters but that the credit really belonged to those who came to the airport to meet the troops, often in the wee hours of the night.

“You people do all the work,” he said. “You make the city look good and you make the airport look good.”

During the reception, greeters cited a variety of reasons for becoming involved.

Some are veterans of past wars or the parents of troops now on active duty. Others want to right the wrongs that occurred when U.S. troops returned from the Vietnam War, only to be taunted and treated with derision.

Whatever the reason, all agreed that the service they are providing is a reward unto itself.

For Ray and Becky Davis of Orrington, the operation has an immediate significance.

The Davises are the parents of three boys now on active duty. Graham, 25, is a Marine assigned to Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia; Bradley, 24, serves with the U.S. Army in Iraq; and Stuart, 19, also is in the Army and is assigned to Afghanistan.

“We are a nation at war and the country needs to stand together,” said Becky Davis.

The Davises see greeting troops as a way to counter anti-war protesters, who they say don’t represent the views of the “silent majority.”

William Knight, a World War II veteran from Bradford, is part of Support Our Troops of Greater Bangor, which has staged dozens of troop greetings in the last few months. He has greeted troops from 135 flights since this spring.

“We never want to have the boys treated like they were after Vietnam,” he said. “It wasn’t their fault. They were ordered to go.”

Korean War veteran Fred Hardin and his wife, Carole, also of Orrington, have been greeters since Desert Storm.

“When I came home we didn’t get any greetings,” said Fred Hardin, who was an Army combat engineer during the war. “I enjoy meeting the troops. Some of them are so young.”