The good news is really good: Some of our local soldiers are back – and others will return shortly – from Iraq, and a grateful community welcomes them with open arms.

Our local Army Reserve unit, the 619th, returned last week, and another, the 133rd Engineer Battalion Army National Guard, is expected back next month.

It is difficult to imagine taking a year or more out of a life, anyone’s life, and then spending it away from family and friends, enduring hardships and living with the near constant fear of death or injury.

We cannot thank our returning soldiers often enough for their service to us and to their nation.

Since this is the first extended American war since Vietnam, we were, as a local newspaper, left trying to figure out how best to cover it.

While every life in Iraq is precious, we had an understandably greater interest in telling the stories of our troops, our friends and our neighbors.

This turned out to be far more confusing, difficult and frustrating than we expected. Some readers have, over the past year, asked why we weren’t doing more to cover the troops. Here’s why:

The first difficulty was navigating the individual military bureaucracies. In general, the Army National Guard was freer with info, perhaps because it’s headquartered in Maine.

The Reserves were, well, more reserved. While some readers expected us to print names and photos of soldiers, both groups were reluctant to supply such information.

In this day of heightened attention to crime, they pointed out, soldiers may not have wanted anyone to know their families were alone at home. Fair enough, but the policy did sever a bond or support that has existed between a community and its soldiers in previous American wars.

We often wanted to write about what life was like for the families left behind, and occasionally we could. We were, however, usually discouraged from making individual contacts, and families were often discouraged from talking to us. If that warning was necessary, it’s a shame we can no longer share such a collective hardship as a community.

At the very least, the restrictions made it difficult to portray the sacrifices being made by families on the home front.

At one point, we were contacted by the Army Reserves about sending a reporter and photographer to “embed” with the troops in Iraq. We selected two people and began outfitting them with equipment. They received the required Army inoculations and studied the rules supplied by the Army. They were ready to go.

And then we waited. And we waited some more. Then we started calling them. “Could be at any moment,” we were told. We waited some more. After months of waiting, we finally gave up. The call never came.

This was unfortunate, I think, for the families of those soldiers and for the community at large. It would have been a wonderful opportunity for our community to see our soldiers and hear directly from them during this difficult time.

It was also discouraging for us. Our two people were excited about going, and they were thoroughly prepared. They waited for months, but the promised call never came.

I know I sometimes hear the media criticized for not writing about the “good news” from Iraq, for simply taking and regurgitating negative wire reports.

Well, like I said, we were ready to go, see and report, but the stateside bureaucracy couldn’t get out of its own way.

We rejoice that the soldiers are now home. As a newspaper, we regret in many ways that we couldn’t have been there with them or covered their long absence from home more thoroughly.

Rex Rhoades is executive editor of the Sun Journal. He can be reached at: [email protected].