Also in his unit was Specialist Sara Lansing, who lived on Enterprise Street, with her family for about eight years and graduated from Duxbury High School in 2000.

Spc. Michael Hearson was not the only soldier with ties to Duxbury returning home last Friday.

Also in his unit was Specialist Sara Lansing, who lived on Enterprise Street, with her family for about eight years and graduated from Duxbury High School in 2000.

Her mom, Mary, said Friday’s homecoming was accompanied with lots of tears for her, her mother Doris Prince, who still lives on Enterprise Street as well as Sara.

“There was a lot of crying, but it was happy crying,” said Mary, who lives in Kingston.  “We are so lucky that they all came home safely.”

Sara, 22, said that it is great to be home and “strange how easy it is to jump back into civilian life” after a year in Iraq.

“I’ve dreamed of Duxbury Beach and yesterday, I walked on it,” she said.  “Although it is a little colder here, it is far better than I ever could have imagined.”

Mrs. Lansing added that she thought the turnout for the unit’s return was wonderful, as the crowd stayed upbeat and energetic despite the nearly two-hour delay from when the unit’s buses were scheduled to arrive at the Armory in Hingham.

Sara is back in her own apartment in Kingston and acclimating back to the United States after nearly a year in Iraq. 

This is kind of a second homecoming for the younger Lansing, who was one of the lucky members of the unit who got to come home for two weeks in December in a random drawing of soldiers’ names in the 1058th.

Mrs. Lansing said it is great that her daughter, now at home more permanently, is closer to her and she’ll be a little less worried than she was during her daughter’s tour overseas.

“Now I worry about regular things a mother does and I have a little control here [versus what happens in Iraq], so it’s a different kind of worrying,” she said.  “I couldn’t watch the news or talk about anything related to the war without crying, so it has been a difficult year.”