BREWER, Maine — The family of 2007 Brewer High School graduate James Butts got the news late last week that they have been waiting a year for — James, a specialist with the Army Reserve’s 619th Transportation Company, was back on United States soil.
“I was excited” to hear the unit, which has served a year in Iraq, was home, Lloyd Butts said on Sunday. “Before the last week, we didn’t know where he was.
“I’m just glad he’s back,” the 20-year-old soldier’s father said with obvious relief in his voice.
The 100 Army reservists in the 619th, based in Auburn and Dexter, will leave Fort Dix, N.J. and will receive a hero’s welcome when they enter Maine on Monday morning, said Kerry Birmingham, manager of the Military Family Assistance Center in Augusta.
“State police will pick them up in Kittery” and escort them to the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston where family, friends and supporters will be gathered to meet them. They are scheduled to arrive between 7:30 and 8 a.m.
“A group of veterans [will provide a] motorcycle escort” starting at Kennebunkport, George Mathis of Newport, state commander of the Disabled American Veterans said Sunday.
When the unit approaches the Lewiston-Auburn area, police and fire crews from the sister cities will join the procession for the final leg to their homecoming celebration, Birmingham said.
“It’s very exciting,” he said. “They’re all coming back alive.”
The colisee is located at 190 Birch St. in Lewiston.
When James Butts, a motor transport operator for his unit, arrives in Lewiston he will be greeted by his parents, his sister, Heidi, and brother, Travis, and other relatives from all over Maine.
“We’re all meeting at Dunkin’ Donuts in Newport and we’ll go from there,” his mother, Bonnie Butts, said, adding she and her husband are leaving Brewer at 5 a.m. Monday.
The family kept in touch by phone and the Internet, Lloyd Butts said. When asked what his son did in Iraq, he answered, “I have no clue.”
“He said, ‘I’m not telling you anything. I’ll tell you everything when I get home,’” Lloyd Butts said. “That way, we wouldn’t worry.”
During a send-off ceremony for the 619th soldiers, held on June 27, 2008, it was announced the unit would conduct route clearance and provide security for coalition forces. At least one soldier was injured while serving overseas and was transported home for treatment of a head injury, but no deaths were reported, officials said.
James Butts, who already has one year of college at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor, is already enrolled to continue his education at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, his dad said.
His older brother, John, who is in the Army and stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, convinced him to join the military, Lloyd Butts said.
John Butts cannot make the homecoming, but he’ll arrive in Maine on July 10, which is the day his little brother James Butts turns 21, Bonnie Butts said.
“We’re so excited” he’s home, she said.