Family, company members welcome Marines home.

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

Two Marines returning from war. Two sets of loved ones to welcome them home. And too much emotion to put into words.

"I don't really know what to say," Capt. Devin Karamanos said. "It's just nice to be back in the Northwest and get out of the heat."

Karamanos, 28, of Portland is a member of the U.S. Marine Corps' Engineer Company A in Eugene. He shipped out for Iraq and the impending war in January, served with the 8th Engineers Bridge Company in Iraq, helped build a bridge across the Tigris River so his fellow troops could move into Baghdad and flew Friday into Eugene on a Horizon Air flight from Portland, via Camp Pendleton in California.

He stepped off the plane with Staff Sgt. Kristian Mayes, a Marine reservist with Company A. Eleven Marines of the company stood at attention to welcome them home as the plane's propellers wound down.

"Welcome back, sir!" Maj. Lance Pattock said to each man as he saluted them and shook their hands.

Welcome back, indeed.

"It was very unnerving not to know where he was or what he was doing," said Terrie Karamanos, Capt. Karamanos' mother, who drove down from Portland with husband Andy to greet their son.

Also there to greet them were local military veterans and their wives, waving the red, white and blue.

"It was great to give them a homecoming - a homecoming we never got," said Thomas Laing of Veneta, a Vietnam veteran and a member of VFW Post No. 9448, which adopted Engineer Company A with Post No. 7384 of Coburg when war broke out, lending assistance to the families of those who went to fight.

Mayes, who hails from Tombstone, Ariz., and now lives in Eugene with his wife, Rita, and her daughters, Sabrina and Kabrina, served with the Marine's 7th Transportation Support Battalion in Iraq.

Shy and unassuming, Mayes shared little of his adventures overseas, just saying it was great to be home.

His wife greeted him with a dozen roses and squeezed him tightly. "It's awesome, outstanding," she said.

Asked the best part of having her husband home, she joked: "Now I don't have to do the yard. I don't have to wash the truck."

Karamanos, a camouflage backpack slung over his shoulder, said he and his company were shot at "a couple of times, but nothing major."

With a roll of his eyes, he said going to war was "interesting."

On a more serious note, he said the "daily drudgery of war" takes a toll, and he's glad his stay in Iraq was a short one.

Mayes will soon depart for North Carolina, where he will receive instruction at a Marine mechanic school.

Karamanos will spend this weekend in Portland with family and friends and then return early in the week to Eugene to rejoin his company.

"This is surprising," he told the crowd of greeters. "And I thank you for welcoming us back."

Terrie Karamanos said she never expected the good fortune to have her son be just 100 miles down the freeway when he joined the Marines. And she never expected to have him end up so far away, and in such danger, if even for a short time.

Andy Karamanos just looked on proudly and said: "It's part of the job description."

CAPTION(S):

Marine Captain Devin Karamanos gets a hug from his mother, Terrie Karamanos, at the Eugene Airport on Friday after returning from Iraq. Kevin Clark / The Register-Guard Kevin Clark / The Register-Guard Annette Jordan (left) and Martha Landreth, of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 293 ladies auxiliary, show support at the Eugene Airport for two Marines returning from Iraq. Please turn to MARINES, Page B5 Marines: Surprised at the homecoming Continued from Page B1 "I don't really know what to say. It's just nice to be back in the Northwest and get out of the heat." CAPT. DEVIN KARAMANOS U.S. MARINE CORPS