Pope A F B, N.C. — Nearly 600 Fort Bragg troops returned Friday from an 11-month deployment to Iraq in time to celebrate Memorial Day with their families.

The members of the 37th Engineer Battalion worked with members of the Iraqi army on construction, engineering and security efforts. They earned more than 2,000 awards during their deployment.

Still, the cheers, smiles and hugs they received upon their arrival Friday afternoon at Green Ramp at Pope Air Force Base likely made them forget all of those awards and the difficulties of recent months overseas.

First Lt. Mark Miller's son, Zachariah, was born shortly before he deployed.

"Other than (a brief visit in March), he's been home for about a month of (Zachariah's) life," said his wife, Vanessa Miller. "It'll be nice to have him home."

"I made it back for his first birthday, so I'm pretty excited about that," Mark Miller said. "I'm pretty excited about helping my wife take care of him."