Windsor Locks — They returned home to new and old family members, friends and in one case, 15 new pen pals. For nine months they've talked on the phone, by email and letters or through social media - but never in person.

One communication started from the ding of a cellphone. Caroline Chapman, Career Center coordinator at Stonington High School, is a longtime friend of Col. John Whitford of Norwich. One day students heard her phone ding, indicating she had received a Facebook message from Whitford, who was deployed in Afghanistan.

"The next thing I knew they wanted to start talking to him, and so they were sending messages back and forth through Facebook. We would take photos. They would make signs - two months left, that kind of thing. He would write back. They were so excited they wanted to come and greet him," Chapman said as she and 15 students from Stonington High prepared to welcome Whitford home.

Whitford was one of nine Connecticut National Guard soldiers from the 242nd Engineer Detachment of Niantic, who returned to the National Guard's aviation center in Windsor Locks Tuesday following a nine-month deployment to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Their loved ones waited, seated at first, and as the unit's arrival approached, they stood lining a spacious room in the center.

Some, like the students from Stonington, brought large signs saying "Welcome home" and "Thank you for serving our country," others held small American flags. And one family wore Army green T-shirts with the words "Team Rico" on them in honor of Spc. Ricardo Reyes Scheiner, 24, of Waterbury, the youngest member of the unit.

Scheiner's mom, Ruthie Reyes, stood in front of the crowd, with her body almost outside in the rain, as she waited by the door that the unit walked through upon their return.

"It feels so good. Right now my body is shaking. I'm so happy that all the troops are home, and they're safe. I was so worried for my son every day," Reyes said, noting that this was Scheiner's first tour.

In fact, it was the unit's first deployment. The specialty engineering unit received federal recognition in September 2011, and while deployed helped to reduce the size of America's footprint in Afghanistan.

Whitford, who served for many years as spokesman for the National Guard, was commander of the unit and said the unit helped with deconstruction efforts first in Kabul, and then at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. The unit's mission was to provide project management and technical support to deconstruct and consolidate coalition operating bases within the theater of operations.

"Everything that we built up for the last 13 years, we were there to reduce that footprint, bring it down to see what the Afghans could actually sustain and run so there was a lot of work that we did. We probably took close to 700 structures down," Whitford said.

A November 2014 article in the Connecticut Guardian, by Sgt. Brendan McLaughlin, a member of the unit, noted that to date the unit had "tracked, managed and engineered the destruction of more than 1,853 wooden structures with another 200 planned for removal."

While deployed, the unit maintained "some great relationships with the Afghan people," Whitford said. "They were very receptive to everything and the training that was going on. Obviously there are a certain few who don't like us and tried to disrupt our operations there, but that was few and far between. ... We have tried to set them up for success, so that they can sustain everything beyond 2017."

The unit's efforts directly supported the ongoing drawdown of coalition combat forces in Afghanistan.

The unit left Connecticut for Fort Bliss, Texas, in February of this year for training, and landed in Afghanistan in March. While deployed, the soldiers talked with their loved ones whenever they had the chance.

"Like when he'll be coming home. What are the things he's done. How long till they finish," said Brady Moorehead, 8, remembering video and phone conversations with his dad, Sgt. Maj. David Moorehead of Gales Ferry.

His deployment prevented Moorehead from attending a Veterans Day lunch at Brady's school.

"I wish he was there," Brady said.

Now that he is home, Moorehead's daughter Ainslee, 13, is looking forward to catching up and hanging out. "We're going to go see the Hunger Games Mockingjay (movie)," she said. Of her dad being a member of the National Guard, Ainslee said, "it's a pretty cool job."

"Sending them off is difficult. Welcoming them back home is great," said Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, who was there to greet the soldiers. Wyman said during her time in office she's attended all of the send-offs and returns of CTNG troops. "Not only do we call them out for war. We call them out for storms. We call them out to help our state. They're always there for us," she said. "This is a branch of government that really has been our protectors."

The CTNG now has 23 soldiers and airmen mobilized and deployed to Southwest Asia. Around 225 additional soldiers and airmen are expected to deploy overseas in the next 15 months to Kosovo and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, among other places.

The returning soldiers were: Staff Sgt. Jed Couture of Waterford; Staff Sgt. Robert Cromer of Oxford; Sgt. 1st Class Tye Frazer of Ledyard; Sgt. Brendan McLaughlin, Lebanon; Sgt. Maj. David Moorehead of Gales Ferry; Spc. Ricardo Reyes Scheiner of Waterbury; Capt. William Robbins of Medford, Mass.; Col. John Whitford of Norwich; and Chief Warrant Officer Michael Young of Oxford.

The unit will reunite in about 90 days for a formal ceremony where there will be a presentation of awards, ribbons and other acknowledgments of what they achieved while deployed.

j.bergman@theday.com

Twitter: JuliaSBergman