A group of 55 Marine reservists, including several from the Lewiston-Auburn area, could be home from Iraq as early as today.

They’ve been gone since the day after Christmas 2005.

“It’s like time has stopped for the last 10 months,” said Irene Grondin of Sabattus, whose son, Trevor, 25, is among the men and women of Company A, 1st Battalion of the 25th Marine Regiment who will be returning to the Topsham Reserve Center. “I want to give him a hug and know he’s safe.”

The local homecoming is planned for either late today or Thursday morning. The Marines are already in America, though.

The group flew to California’s Camp Pendleton on Oct. 13, stopping to refuel in Bangor as they headed west.

Irene Grondin joined about 200 people – family and friends of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 25th Marines – who met the reservists when they arrived in Bangor at 2:30 a.m. that Friday.

They visited for about 90 minutes before the Marines moved on to the West Coast base, where they have been ever since.

They are expected to fly back to the East Coast, landing at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, Mass., about 10 miles northeast of Springfield. After a stop at Fort Devens outside Concord, Mass., the group is expected to ride home aboard a bus, said a Marine at the Topsham office.

In all, the Marines spent about seven months on the ground in Iraq. After three months of training, they arrived in Fallujah last March, Irene Grondin said.

Every moment her son was there, she worried.

Trevor tried to call home every two weeks or so. He sent few e-mails and fewer letters.

When he returns, his mother expects to learn more about his time in Iraq, though the homecoming will be quiet.

The 1st Battalion of the 25th Marine Regiment is primarily a cold-weather infantry unit. It has companies in Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

At the Topsham center, the official dismissal order is expected to take only a few minutes. Then, the men and women will quietly go home.

Families were counseled to delay holding big parties or going on extravagant trips, said Irene Grondin. She expects Trevor to come home and take it easy for a few weeks, with family and friends encouraged to drop by casually.

Then, Trevor will decide what to do next. Before going overseas, he had worked at a Sabattus hardware store and attended business classes at the University of Southern Maine.