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Mari Cris Canup was nine months pregnant when her husband, Airman 1st Class Timothy Canup deployed to Camp Bucca, Iraq, six months ago.

His first look at their daughter Sheila, who is five months old now, was by webcam.

Mari Cris Canup said that she has been dreaming about the moment when they would all finally be together as a family ever since he left, a moment that arrived Tuesday.

Timothy Canup was one of roughly 200 airmen with the 822nd Security Forces Scorpions, a squadron under the 820th Security Forces Group, 93rd Air Ground Operations Wing, who returned home Tuesday. While deployed, the squadron executed joint expeditionary taskings and outside-the-wire security operations, said Lt. Chelsey Garrison with the Moody AFB Public Affairs Office.

The 820th SFG has maintained a continual presence at Camp Bucca since 2007, said Col. Donald Derry, commander of the 820th Security Forces Group. Derry was instrumental in forming the group and said he feels “like a proud papa” now that they are all home again.

Deployed group commander Maj. Larry Woods transferred command to Maj. Joe D’Amico before dismissing his troops for a well-deserved holiday. The Valdosta Daily Times interviewed Woods when the group deployed on the 65th anniversary of D-Day in June.

”This will be a special time,” Woods said. “We’ll get them back, reset them, enjoy the whole group being together as a whole and then we’ll start mission planning and figure out what we’re going to do for follow-on tasking. There’s still some areas where their special skill set is required out there in the world.”

“It was a very successful mission,” said Col. John Horner, commander of the 93rd Air Ground Operations Wing at Moody. “We had a continuous presence over there in Iraq for a number of years. They turned it over and they left it a peaceful province with their mission done. They were mostly transferring and guarding detainees, and they have closed the camp and turned it over to the Iraqis. It’s indicative of the things in Iraq that have turned the corner.”

Shelley Lanthorn said she and her husband, Airman 1st Class Lee Lanthorn, plan to spend Christmas with family in East Tennessee after first taking a little vacation to Disney World in Orlando, Fla. They have been married less than a year. She said she was worried about Lee during the deployment but tried not to think about it.

“If you think about danger or worry,” she said, “you just become consumed in it, so I try to focus on: It’s getting closer, they’re coming home.”

Nicole Conway was there with 15-month-old son Alexander to meet husband and father Staff Sgt. Matthew Conway, a combat arms training instructor with the 822nd. Nicole said her plans are “to spend as much time together as we can and become a family again and to make sure Alexander spends as much time with his daddy as he can.”

“We’re bringing back some heroes today,” Derry said over the loudspeaker to the cheers of the assembled friends and family members of the returning troops. “And not only are we bring back heroes today, but we’re bringing heroes for the holidays. This is the first time in history since the 820th Security Forces Group was formed in 2000 that we have had (all the) troops here during the Christmas holidays.”