They are returning home with a sense of accomplishment, but also with 
feelings of anger and frustration, even despair. 
They speak proudly about building up the Iraqi security force, restoring 
electricity and watching Iraqis walk miles to vote.
But they wonder whether it will be enough to secure Iraq's future, and at 
times, express bitterness toward the people they wanted to help.
 
 
 |  Members of the Second Brigade Combat Team, 
 Pennsylvania National Guard, wait to be out processed at Camp Shelby, near 
 Hattiesburg, Miss., June 8, 2006. The Pennsylvania Guardsmen patrolled Al 
 Anbar province, a huge swath of land in western Iraq that's a stronghold 
 of insurgency. [AP]
 | 
"They're using our good will, our good-nature policy against us," says Sgt. 
Bobby Walls, a 38-year-old Pennsylvania National Guard member. "The fact that we 
fight as the good guys sometimes turns around and kicks us in the can, you 
know?"
Such are the swirling emotions for troops returning home from Iraq. Among the 
most recent of those returnees are members of the largest contingent of 
Pennsylvania National Guard troops deployed to a combat zone since World War II.
Fifteen from their ranks of about 2,000 were killed during the nearly 
yearlong deployment in Iraq's Anbar province, a huge swath of land that's a 
stronghold of insurgency. Two others are being investigated in connection with 
the shooting death of an Iraqi civilian earlier this year.
For the rest of these part-time soldiers, it can be a struggle as they return 
home this summer to regain the sort of normalcy they knew before spending a year 
with their lives in danger wherever they went. During stopovers at Camp Shelby 
in Mississippi on their way home, some talked about their experiences.
Walls felt helpless and furious as he stood at ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001, 
one of several Philadelphia police officers who on their own drove New York City 
to help. He vowed to become an infantryman and get even, so the father of three 
went off inactive status in the Navy Reserves and joined the Army National 
Guard.
At boot camp, the other recruits - many just 18 - called him 
grandpa. He lost 45 pounds in basic training and scout school that followed. 
Then his unit was sent to Ramadi, which he nicknamed the "meat grinder." He 
worked as a sniper, usually with just one partner.
At night, they'd sneak into rural villages and urban areas, tracking 
suspected terrorists for hours at a time. Sometimes, they'd kill them.