By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Standing in their faded desert khakis before an audience of their families and friends, soldiers of the 619th Transportation Company cheered and waved like rock stars.

Others stood stoically, waiting for an officer’s OK. And some wept.

“We made it back,” said Sgt. Lisa McDonald, who began crying as she walked to the front of the Lewiston Armory.

On Monday, McDonald and 131 other members of the Auburn-based company finally made it home.

Gone for 432 days, transporting supplies across Iraq and Kuwait, the group performed an estimated 278 missions and traveled an estimated 1.2 million miles.

But at the front of the armory, only a few paces from their families, those last feet were the only distance that mattered.

From her spot in the four-deep formation in front of the stage, a woman soldier signed “I love you” to a face in the crowd. Beside her, a middle-aged man contorted his face as he held back tears.

More than 1,000 people were there with balloons and signs. They stood on chairs and leaned on balcony railings.

When the introductory music ended and the national anthem was sung, the soldiers leapt to their families.

Scott Gagnon of Lewiston held onto his daughters, ages 3 and 6 months. McDonald held her brothers Tim and Steve, who had followed the soldiers through the armory’s corridors.

They settled into folding chairs. Men cradled their children in their laps and held their wives’ hands.

“It couldn’t be a better Valentine’s Day for the state of Maine,” Gov. John Baldacci said, greeting the soldiers with a few brief sentences.

Auburn Mayor Normand Guay spoke of the missed birthdays and holidays and the Red Sox World Series win, which drew a whoop from the crowd.

A few moments later, the company’s commanding officer, Capt. Victoria Grasmick, drew a standing ovation from her soldiers as she took the microphone.

“We’ve been on a fast-moving train that didn’t stop for fuel, didn’t stop for sleep, didn’t stop for food and it didn’t seem to end,” Grasmick said.

Closure for each soldier was what the ceremony was meant to provide. It did the same for family and friends.

Spc. Craig Ardry of Pittsfield, wounded last April when his convoy struck a homemade bomb, came to greet a high school buddy, Sgt. Eric Bither.

A member of the 133rd Engineer Battalion, Ardry was injured in the same blast that killed Spc. Christopher D. Gelineau of Portland. After two weeks in a medically induced coma, he spent two months in a wheelchair and a month with a walker.

“I just kicked the cane,” said Ardry, who confidently walked up the armory stairs and found a place with his friend’s family.

He didn’t plan any welcome-home greeting for his friend, Sgt. Bither.

“I’m just going to stay out of the way,” Ardry said.

Meanwhile, Rita Gagnon of Lewiston shared her pride in her son, Sgt. Scott Gagnon, with the whole armory.

At the start of the ceremony, she sang the national anthem. And after the dignitaries finished their speeches, she took the stage again. She sang a version of the Martina McBride song “Independence Day.” However, she rewrote the verses for the 619th, singing of their bravery and toughness.

“You made it ’cause you’re tough to the core,” she sang.

She had made the changes after waking in the middle of the night, she said.

“I did it to help me tell him how proud I was,” she said before the ceremony.

The message was delivered.

“What I felt was pride,” Scott Gagnon said. “She’s got a beautiful voice. She always did.”