LEWISTON – Amid the desert heat and fear of insurgents in Iraq, Staff Sgt. Matthew Wright cherished the boxes from home.

They would often weigh 50 pounds or more, crammed full of everything from flea collars and wet wipes to Jolly Rancher candy and plastic bottles filled with his favorite drink, Moxie.

“They were like a piece of home, right in the middle of all that desert,” said Wright. He’d rip open the boxes – postmarked “Lewiston, Maine” – and share the collars and candy with the 37 men and women in his platoon.

On Wednesday, he returned to Lewiston to say thank you.

The items and money for the care packages had come from 90 workers at Bell Manufacturing, where Wright’s mother, Diane, works. She shopped, packed and sent the boxes.

When Matthew sent a letter or made a rare phone call, she shared the news with her co-workers, who felt they knew him.

And when the Marine came to the factory Wednesday morning, they lined up to shake his hand.

Bell President and CEO Marc Lasky shut down the machines and described Wright as “a true American hero.”

The staff sergeant replied with the presentation of a plaque, thanking the company and the employees for the packages.

The members of Wright’s group – Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines – had paid for the plaque, which bears the Marine Corps seal and the words “Semper Fi.”

The motto, which translates as “always faithful,” might also describe the 30-year-old Marine, who has spent two tours of duty in Iraq. And he expects to return to the Middle East for a third time, either to Iraq or Afghanistan.

It makes his mother nervous.

“I told him to join the Navy,” she joked Wednesday.

But the 12-year veteran wants to complete a full 20-year Marine career, allowing him to retire at the age of 38.

If that means returning to the desert, so be it, he said.

During his most recent tour, which lasted seven months, he worked in the northwest corner of the country, near the border with Syria. The work there was focused on training Iraqi police, border officers and national guards.

Compared to the big cities, the area of small villages and towns was relatively quiet most of the time. Weeks might go by without incident. Then, insurgents or smugglers would pass through.

Mostly, the soldiers’ morale was high.

It was always buoyed by the packages, which also helped them on their favorite duty. They called it “candy patrol.”

Using the lollipops and suckers they were sent, a group of soldiers would find bunches of kids, chat with them in a few Arabic phrases and give out candy.

“We’d make somebody the candy man,” said Wright. “I liked to do it.”

For those moments, when he was talking with a smiling boy or girl, he’d forget about the war and the fighting.

“You’d get away from the stress,” he said. “Almost.”