Jason Avery and 1,600 of his fellow soldiers received a hero's welcome on their return to their home base in Italy on Friday, a year after parachuting into northern Iraq in the biggest U.S. airdrop since World War II. Paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade passed before their commanders in review in Vicenza, northern Italy, where they are based. Some 2,000 teary-eyed family members watched and cheered at their passage. "I'm just happy to be back, for what I do, for what I've done," said the 23-year old Avery, who's from New York. "I was so concerned, I was just trying to get back," said Avery, His wife Christina and three kids in tow, hamburgers in one of hand, hot dogs in another, trying to secure a seat at a dinner party at the base. Around him, music was playing loud, balloons were flying in the room and banners all over the walls. Avery came back earlier this month. Being away meant he missed the birth of his third child, Cheyenne, now 6 months old. "Now, I'm just trying to make the best of every moment," he said.
Some 1,000 paratroopers went in northern Iraq on March 26, 2003, and grabbed an airfield in the area. Another 500 roughly followed over the next days. The airdrop, which took place from a nearby base in Italy, Aviano, was the first large deployment of American ground troops in the region. It opened a northern front as U.S.-led forces advanced on Baghdad from the south. Over the past year, the 173rd's job was to control Kirkuk, an oil-rich city 180 miles north of Baghdad where Kurds, Arabs and other ethnic groups have been competing for domination. "The ethnic tension was always there, but we left behind a lot of things that are promising," Col. William C. Mayville, Jr., the brigade commander of the 173rd told reporters after the ceremony.
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