Thankful to be home Marines passing through Bangor reassure family members for holiday

Connie Clements’ holiday wish was granted Wednesday morning as her grandson walked down Bangor International Airport’s terminal ramp and into her arms.

Clements drove from Monroe to BIA on Wednesday to make sure her grandson, Lance Cpl. Bryan Lewis, 19, reached American soil safely after spending seven months in Iraq with the Marines.

“We were quite sure he was on this flight,” Clements said, her eyes reddened by tears. “But he still hadn’t come through, and it was getting to the end of the line. I started to get pretty discouraged, and then my husband spotted him. I spoke his name out, and here he is.”

Lewis was one of 224 Marines who had a 1 1/2-hour layover at BIA while en route to the base in Twentynine Palms, Calif. The unit spent seven months in Anbar province in Iraq and was expected to arrive at their home base Wednesday night, just in time for Thanksgiving.

Lewis, a Monroe native, will not be able to make it back home for Thanksgiving this year, so he will spend it in California with his fiancee, Diana Jack. The two will probably go out to eat at a restaurant, he said, but instead of focusing on the holiday, their Dec. 30 wedding date will consume most of the day’s conversation.

Since joining the Marines, Lewis has been in the Pine Tree State only twice – he spent each time in the BIA terminal on his journeys to, and now from, the war zone in Iraq.

When the Marines arrived at the airport around 11 a.m., Bethany Smith fidgeted, anxiously searching for her husband, Cpl. Micah Smith, originally from Sanford. She did not know for sure he was on this particular flight, but when she spotted him her body started to shake and she covered her mouth as tears streamed from her eyes. Cpl. Micah Smith respectfully shook the hands of Maine Troop Greeters, who were lined up to welcome the Marines, but as he drew closer to his wife the Marine fell out of line and scurried to embrace her.

“She was crying so I felt bad,” the Marine said while bouncing his 10-month-old daughter, Gwen, on his thigh.

Smith said his daughter had grown so much since April, the last time he saw her, and he was happy to see her young personality flourish.

“I am thankful I’m back on time,” he said. “And I’m thankful that the situation in Iraq had changed so much that we could come home.”

This was Smith’s second deployment to Ramadi, Iraq, and the violence has significantly decreased, he said. The Sanford native’s unit experienced nearly 10 small arms fire or improvised explosive device attacks per day during his first deployment to the city. This time around, the unit was in far less danger, seeing an attack only once daily, he said.

The Clementses and Smiths returned to their Maine homes Wednesday afternoon without their Marines, but neither family minded, since both were safely back in the U.S. The Marines had to return to California with the rest of their unit and will miss Thanksgiving with their Maine families, but the reunion was a taste of what is to come.

“As long as he is safe in the states, I don’t care” about seeing him on the holiday, Bethany Smith said. “This is the best hour and a half that I have had in seven months.”

Toni-Lynn Robbins can be reached by e-mail at trobbins@bangordailynews.net or by phone at 990-8074.