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Mass. Guard unit comes home; no casualties

HUDSON, Mass. — A state Army National Guard unit that didn’t suffer a single casualty during a yearlong deployment protecting some the highest profile targets in Iraq returned home Saturday.

Four buses carrying 188 members of the 181st Infantry Regiment, based in Worcester, rolled into the parking lot at the Hudson Elks Club at about 6 a.m. The soldiers were greeted by banners, hugs and tears from hundreds of friends and families.

“It was chaos,” said the unit commander, Capt. Stephen Rooney.

The unit was charged with protecting various high-ranking officials in Baghdad, including U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General.

“It’s a high stress mission,” Rooney said. “There’s just no room for failure.”

Rooney, 39, of Nashua, N.H., said the group performed more than 1,000 protective details in 10 months in Iraq and came under all manner of hostile fire.

“We were in the roads, on the rooftops, in marketplaces, on street corners ... you name it, and we did not take a single casualty,” he said. “That’s a testament, first and foremost, to the soldiers.”

Rooney said he sees significant success in Baghdad, and that the U.S. military appeared to be winning the hearts and minds of the average Iraqi. But he added the progress was fragile and would be lost with a quick withdrawal.

Rooney, who works for audio equipment maker Bose Corp., returns to his wife, Christine, and they have more catching up to do than others in his unit. Christine is also in the military, and was on a yearlong deployment to Iraq just before he left. In the last two years, Rooney said, they’ve seen each other for about three weeks.