Houlton embraces three returning soldiers Home from Kuwait duty, troops get 15-mile parade

HOULTON – They’re coming home.

Word traveled all around town in just about two hours Tuesday afternoon, so scores of residents, business owners and emergency responders worked together to arrange a celebration for three area soldiers returning from active duty in Kuwait.

Hundreds of people lined a 15-mile parade route that began at the Smyrna exit on Interstate 95 and ended at the Pleasant Street Armory late Tuesday afternoon.

Maine Army National Guardsmen B.J. Barton, Allen Rood and Bob Smart were the star attractions.

“We got the call saying that they were coming a little before 1 p.m.,” said Steve DeWitt, a Houlton firefighter and emergency medical technician who drove the Fire Department’s pumper truck in the parade. “We started calling businesses downtown to let them know, so they could come out and show their support.”

Officers from the Houlton Police Department and Maine State Police gathered in Smyrna with the Houlton Fire and Ambulance Department to provide an escort.

The men are members of the 152nd Field Artillery Unit out of Houlton, but Barton and Rood were stationed with the 1136 Transportation Company out of Bangor.

The men were tapped to help the company when they did not have enough troops for their mission, according to Sgt. Clark Rafford of the 152nd.

The guardsmen watched as residents lined the chain-link fence by Dunn Furniture Co. on North Street, waving flags and cheering. Residents applauded over the screams of the sirens as the parade passed through Market Square.

Carmen Rood of Oakfield was on hand at the Armory with her two children to support her husband, Allen Rood.

Needless to say, she was delighted that her husband’s chair would no longer be empty at the dinner table.

“I just want to go home and have a really good supper,” Rood said, her eyes tearing up. “I can’t wait to spend a lot of time together.”

“We found out on April 12 that we were coming home,” said one of the guardsmen, Bob Smart of Monticello. “I kept in touch all this time through e-mail and telephone calls, but it sure is great to be home.”

Rhonda Jewell, Smart’s fiancee, said the couple planned to go home and relax.

“We just want to get to know each other again,” Jewell said.

Patty Norton struggled to hold back tears as she watched her son, B.J. Barton of Hodgdon, hold the baby girl that he had not seen for much of the first six months of her life.