NEWINGTON, Conn. (AP) – Nearly five months after they returned home from Iraq, the members of the 118th Medical Battalion got a formal welcome-home ceremony Sunday.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell thanked the group, which returned from abroad in early February, at a ceremony at the Newington Veterans Hospital.

Someone from the unit mailed the governor a photo from overseas that included the Connecticut flag, Rell said. She had it posted on the state’s Web site.

“Whichever one of you sent me that picture, thank you so much,” she said, speaking to the group. “I cherish it.”

The 140 soldiers left Fort Drum, N.Y., in December of 2003. They arrived in Kuwait in February of 2004. They were stationed at various locations around Iraq, and treated more than 100,000 U.S. and coalition soldiers, enemy prisoners of war and Iraqi civilians. They also evacuated more than 3,400 patients.