Groton ― As the USS Delaware (SSN 791) became visible early Monday afternoon to a group of people standing on Shore Avenue along the banks of the Thames River, they took out their binoculars, tooted horns and cheered.

Nearby, a large hand-painted banner hung with a message welcoming home their neighbor, Lt. Commander Adam Parkinson, the submarine’s executive officer.

“It’s just surreal,” said Barbara Parkinson, his wife, as she watched the submarine with the group. “He’s been gone for so long.”

“I’m just really happy that he’s coming back,” added their 13-year-old daughter, Claire.

The USS Delaware soon made its way to the Naval Submarine Base after its six-month maiden deployment, and families greeted their loved ones.

The USS Delaware, a Virginia-class attack submarine, has a crew of more than 134 and is commanded by Cmdr. Robert Low, according to Navy. It was commissioned April 4, 2020, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, the official commissioning date was April 2, 2020, while the boat was underway, making it the first U.S. naval warship to be commissioned while submerged.

Before the USS Delaware’s arrival at the base, Parkinson’s neighbors decided to cheer on the submarine, on its way to the base, from their neighborhood.

The group of neighbors call themselves the Eastern Point Pandemic Imbibing Club, or E.P.P.I.C., said neighbor Todd Gipstein. He said they were starved for socializing during the COVID-19 pandemic and formed the social group as a way to get together, socially distanced, outside in their chairs. The neighbors knew each other before the pandemic and said hello to each other, but it brought them all a lot closer.

“It’s been a real silver lining in the dark pandemic,” he said.

The group, from some younger people to many retirees, continued meeting even after the pandemic loosened its grip, he said.

The group gets together on Saturday afternoons to sip a drink ― whether it’s a beer, a margarita or water ― and tell stories, they explained. They also have a text message group, where they communicate to offer food if they are leaving for vacation or reach out if they need to borrow a hammer.

“We’ve really enjoyed living in this neighborhood,” said Marcia Gipstein, Todd’s wife. “It’s just so amazing the friendships that we've made.”

Knowing their neighbor is a submariner, the close-knit group of about a dozen people decided to surprise him.

They got together over the past two weekends, to create a banner for him. Todd Gipstein sketched out a design on a paper, Marcia Gipstein ordered a blank banner, and then Barbara Parkinson sketched out the design on the banner, and the neighbors all painted it.

The banner stated “An E.P.P.I.C. Welcome Home Adam,” with a submarine with Adam on board. It also includes an American flag and two drinks, along with notes of encouragement from the neighbors.

Judy Soltz, a neighbor who was holding an American flag, said six months is a long time to be away and they wanted to welcome him home.

“He’s a good guy, and he has an important job,” neighbor Val Lewis said of Adam Parkinson.

She said the people who serve in the Coast Guard and Navy “give us all a gift.”

“Sometimes, we forget,” she said.

Lewis said she hopes the act buoys his spirits.

“Who wouldn’t feel good about people spending hours putting this crazy stuff together?” she joked.

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Barbara Parkinson went to the submarine base, and their children, Claire, and Tom, 2, greeted Adam Parkinson there.

The group then installed the banner at the Parkinson’s home.

“It’s more than I could have ever expected to have,” said Barbara Parkinson. “The neighbors have been so supportive and just a godsend for the whole experience being here as a military spouse and spending so much time on my own.”

She said she doesn’t have family nearby so it’s been a game changer to have a network of helpful people so close. They helped her when problems came up in her old house, helped her when she first moved into the house a couple of years ago during a storm, and walked her dog when she herniated a disk in her back four days before her husband’s deployment.

“It’s just been a nice support system and small community,” she said.

Parkinson said it’ll be great to have her husband back home after his deployment, but she said it will be sad to leave the neighborhood, as the family will be moving to the Washington, D.C., area in October.

“I felt so honored to have so many caring friends not only support my family throughout deployment, but to be there at the end of it cheering us on for the home stretch was simply amazing,” said Adam Parkinson. “They are such a great group of people.”

k.drelich@theday.com