SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – Nine-year-old Johanna Sargent of West Brookfield hadn’t cried once since her father left for Iraq nearly a year ago until he called Friday to say he would be home in a few days.

Her eyes welled up again when she spotted her father, Sgt. Greg Sargent, making his way through the crowd toward his family Monday. “We missed you, Daddy,” she said as he bent down to hug her.

Nearly 185 Vermont Army National Guard members returned to children, spouses, parents and friends Monday in an early morning snowstorm after serving 11 months in Iraq.

Relatives and friends had arrived before dawn at the Vermont Air Guard headquarters with handmade posters, welcoming home soldiers by name, balloons and flags.

A band played as the anticipation grew in the airport hangar. Guard officials announced the soldiers’ every move. They were in the air around 6 a.m. They had arrived. Then they were getting off the plane.

“Daddy’s home,” said Gretchen King, of Barre, holding her 15-month-old son.

As the door to the hangar rose, family and friends cheered as they got their first glimpse of the soldiers lined up in formation with snow falling heavily on their fatigues.

The group marched in and quickly dispersed to find their families. Ryan Maloney raced over to hug and kiss his young wife. Then his family hovered around him, with two young nieces clinging to him, showing off the colorful posters they had made.

“It’s a great day in Vermont,” said his mother, Nancy Brown, of Rochester, who started the Vermont chapter of Military Families Speak Out and is against the war.

The soldiers have been in Fort Dix, N.J., for the last week doing paperwork and receiving medical checkups and counseling after spending 11 months on the ground fighting in Iraq.

Gov. James Douglas said it was much easier to find words to address the soldiers Monday than it was last March when they were sent off to war. “Welcome home!” he said. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., also greeted the soldiers in brief remarks so they could get home as soon as possible. A formal welcome home ceremony will be held at a later date.

The return of the soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the 86th Field Artillery Regiment were part of Vermont’s first big deployment for the Iraq war. Three Vermont Guard soldiers were killed in action: Spc. Alan Bean Jr., 22, of Bridport, Sgt. Kevin Sheehan, 36, of Milton and Sgt. Jamie Gray, 29, of East Montpelier. A fourth, Sgt. William Normandy, 42, of East Barre, died of natural causes while training in the Kuwait desert.