In a day full of joy and tears, there were special moments: the gallery of over 300 "Welcome Home" posters that moved many; the Old Guard WWII veterans who recalled returning to the very same Armory sixty years ago; the veteran who felt honored to play the bagpipes during the ceremony, having received no welcome when he returned from Vietnam; the high school student who met her pen-pal soldier for the first time after a year of letters to Iraq.

Lt. Col. Robert Schofield, battalion commander, greeted each soldier individually and then addressed the crowd.  "Today we welcome home some of the finest members of our community who were called away to do a difficult job.   On behalf of those who served and of the families who were left behind, we thank United Way and the entire Project Homecoming team for this day."

Also welcoming the soldiers home were Mayor Jay Delaney, Jr. of Morristown and Scott Rosenbush, Mayor of the Township of Morris.

Preparing for the event was a real community effort: from the Morris Area Girl Scout decorations to the coffee from Starbucks, from an evening of baseball donated by Commerce Bank to the creative colleagues from Intel, Weichert Relocation, and AAA New Jersey Automobile Club, who spent two days transforming the cavernous Armory into a festive party hall…each and every effort was appreciated by all!  Click here to download a pdf of all our sponsors that made this event happen.

A special Basket of Thanks, brimming with items donated by Morris County businesses and organizations, was presented to each soldier.

In addition, read the Project Homecoming press release in our Press Releases section.