CHICOPEE, Mass. (AP) – The arrival home Saturday after seven months in Iraq couldn’t have come any sooner for Marine Lance Cpl. Anthony D’Amato, Jr., whose pregnant wife, Heidi, greeted him at Westover Air Reserve Base.

“Now my job can be to be with my family, instead of being over there,” said D’Amato, 23, a computer specialist whose wife is eight months pregnant. “It’s amazing. There are no words that can describe how I feel right now.”

D’Amato was among 30 Marines from Wing Support Squadron, 472 Detachment Bravo, which arrived home after a seven-month deployment supporting aircraft at an air base in the Al-Anbar province. About 100 family members and friends greeted them in Chicopee.

Family members carried signs that read “welcome home” and “we love you.” Another 100 members of the detachment remain in Iraq and are due to return in a few weeks.

There were no deaths from this detachment, said Sgt. Sherry Haetinger.

The Marines returned to the U.S. on Wednesday in Pennsylvania, and had a police escort for their bus trip Saturday. Members of the detachment are from Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York.

Cpl. Amber Keddy, 26, was impressed that a dozen members of her family greeted her in Chicopee.

“It’s really weird and surreal,” said Keddy, a combat engineer who in civilian life is on a waiting list to become a firefighter in Plymouth. “It’s beautiful to see my beautiful family.”

Her 12-year-old nephew, Darren Lopes, said the family has catching up to do, such as belated Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations.

“We’re going to do stuff when she gets back, like all the stuff she missed, so it doesn’t seem like she missed anything,” Darren said.

AP-ES-02-12-05 2008EST