CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Friends and relatives cheered Sunday as more than 330 soldiers from two New Hampshire Army National Guard units returned from yearlong deployments to Iraq.

Their morning and afternoon ceremonies were among the largest guard homecomings so far in February, a month bringing the return of about 800 guardsmen overall.

“It’s great to be home,” said Sgt. Richard Wiltshire of Barnstead, who returned to the waiting arms of his girlfriend, Shannon Benoit.

His return came just two months after he briefly visited home in December for leave, a time he called difficult.

“It’s harder coming back knowing you have to turn around and go back again,” he said.

His Manchester-based unit, Charlie Company, 3rd, of the 172nd Infantry Regiment, conducted combat missions in Iraq. None of the unit’s roughly 180 deployed soldiers were killed, but several were sent home early or returned with injuries. Guard spokesman Capt. Greg Heilshorn was not immediately able to say Sunday how many were wounded.

Sgt. John Worrall was among that group. He attended the homecoming after being sent home more than a month ago when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad during a mid-November patrol. He said he was driving and managed to keep the vehicle on the road after the blast, then began calling the names of other soldiers riding with him.

“I was sure my gunner’s head was gone,” he said, until he heard “I’m up sergeant!”

Worrall suffered wounds to his knees, wrists and a shoulder, as well as severe bruising along his left side. He is using a cane to walk. The vehicle was armored, a fact he credited with saving the soldiers’ lives.

It was “a pretty hairy day,” he added.

Some soldiers returned about a day early to help coordinate the rest of the unit’s homecoming. They included Staff Sgt. Jonathan Fisher, a supply specialist. He attended the homecoming with several relatives, including his son, Ben.

“I moved up to New Hampshire about a year ago, and he got his deployment orders a couple of days after that,” Ben Fisher said. “It’s been kind of tough, but we managed to get through it.”

About 150 soldiers from the guard’s Hillsboro-based 744th Transportation Company returned to Concord late Sunday afternoon. The transportation company also spent about a year in Iraq, conducting supply convoy missions that brought its soldiers under frequent attack.

The unit lost one member, Sgt. Jeremiah Holmes, of North Berwick, Maine, to a roadside bomb on March 29. Spc. Gary Lytle, a driver, was two vehicles behind Holmes’ when the blast occurred. Returning without a fellow soldier made the homecoming difficult, he said.

“I wish he was here,” Lytle added.

His wife, Gina, said she was both “shocked” and “elated” at her husband’s safe return.

“It’s been a long year,” she said.

Other soldiers in the unit also had close calls.

“He said he was safe, but you could hear the bombs going off in the background,” said Joyce Jensen of Brookline, stepmother of Staff Sgt. Gary Jensen, a unit supply specialist.

Gary Jensen’s father, Ross, said he took note each time the unit traveled to a new installation after it left Iraq.

“You feel better the closer he gets,” he said.

AP-ES-02-27-05 1749EST