By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – For dozens of local families separated by the war in Iraq, St. Valentine’s Day will have far greater meaning this year.

On Monday, about 130 members of the Auburn-based 619th Transportation Company are scheduled to return home. They’re due to be met by politicians, color guards, waving flags and plenty of sweethearts.

“This would have to be the best Valentine’s gift anyone could have,” said Dawn Rancourt of Lewiston. Her husband, David Rancourt, is the Army Reserve unit’s first sergeant. They haven’t seen each other in more than a year. And they’re not alone.

The Army Reserve company left Auburn just before Christmas 2003. A few weeks later, they began their work in southern Iraq.

Based in Talil, the same area where Jessica Lynch was captured and rescued, the transportation company hauled equipment, parts, food and water around the country.

During its yearlong stay, the company logged 278 missions and traveled an estimated 1.2 million miles, said Capt. Andrew Love of the 619th.

“We were all over Iraq and Kuwait,” he said Thursday.

Fortunately, the only casualties were three minor wounds that earned Purple Hearts.

“Everyone is coming home,” Love said.

Most of the soldiers arrived in the United States on Tuesday, landing at Fort Drum, N.Y.

Love, who commanded the unit for eight months until a medical problem sent him home, met the men and women as they got off the plane.

“You could see the relief in their eyes,” Love said. “It was over and nobody could turn the plane around.” There were cheers, hugs and dashes to the phones to call families.

Reuniting with them will be the true homecoming, Love said.

The troops are expected to arrive in Lewiston at 5 p.m. Monday, sweeping through Auburn under escort by Androscoggin and Cumberland county deputies.

When they get to the Longley Bridge in downtown, they are to pass under an American flag suspended by firetruck ladders.

And at the Lewiston Armory on Central Avenue, an estimated 1,000 friends and family will be waiting. Given the limited space, the event is not intended for the general public.

Color guards from the Lewiston police, the American Legion and the Knights of Columbus are due to be there. And Rita Gagnon of Lewiston will sing the national anthem for the troops, especially her son, Scott.

“It will be a big day for the whole family,” said David Gagnon, Scott’s father.

Scott was 27 when he volunteered to join the unit, giving up his inactive status to go to Iraq.

“We believed in what Scott was doing,” said his father. “And so did he.”

Speeches will follow the opening anthem. Politicians, including Gov. John Baldacci, Maine’s congressional delegation and the mayors of Lewiston and Auburn, have all been invited to attend the ceremony, likely to last less than an hour.

The goal is to mark the event while getting the soldiers home as quickly as possible, Love said.

Dawn Rancourt said she will attend, even though her husband will not be among the soldiers who arrive Monday.

David Rancourt, one of the unit’s top noncommissioned officers, volunteered to remain in Kuwait when 20 soldiers from the unit were needed to secure equipment for transport home.

“As a leader, he chose to stay,” said his wife, a Lewiston police officer and a former member of the same unit. “That’s the kind of person he is.”

He is due to come home at the end of February.

“We can make our St. Valentine’s Day anytime,” Dawn Rancourt said.