Sgt. Sherry Desrosier, along with 63 other citizen-soldiers of the Bravo Company, 193rd Aviation Regiment of the Hawai'i National Guard, received her official welcome home in a ceremony yesterday after a yearlong tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Desrosier, a 37-year old psychology student at Hawai'i Pacific University, came home from Afghanistan with her unit in April and received her awards and certificate of appreciation for her role in Operation Enduring Freedom yesterday.

"The first four months there were hard," said Desrosier who had to leave her husband David and daughters Elizabeth, 7, and Sophia, 5.

For two weeks in October 2004, Desrosier came home for rest and recuperation and to celebrate Halloween with her daughters. "It was hard because they wanted to see me plus they thought I was home for good," Desrosier said.

Bravo Company, 193rd — made up of 57 soldiers from O'ahu, five soldiers from the Big Island and one from Kaua'i — were deployed in May 2004 to Kandahar, Afghanistan, after undergoing two months of rigorous combat training.

The unit experienced constant enemy mortar, rocket, and small arms fire, but despite it all, every soldier returned home safely, according to Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee.

Speaking to the crowd of soldiers and their families, Gov. Linda Lingle said she began reflecting on the National Guard's responsibilities after watching TV coverage of the war in Iraq and Hurricane Dennis in Florida.

"I thought to myself, 'We're asking an awful lot of the National Guard,' " Lingle said. "We ask our National Guard to leave their families behind and go help families they don't know."

Bravo Company, led by Maj. Roger Pukahi, earned a reputation of being the hardest working unit of any active, guard, or reserve unit to date in Operation Enduring Freedom, Lingle said.

The unit also completed 4,700 aviation work orders, the highest of any unit to date. Their work provided combat aviators an additional 27,000 flight hours to conduct their missions, the highest performance results to date, according to Lingle.

In addition, the unit conducted the most downed aircraft recovery missions since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom.

According to Maj. Gen. Robert Lee, the unit endured sweltering heat in temperatures upwards of 140 degrees.

Desrosier recalls working out of tents and dealing with the temperature. "The heat was unbelievable, it was unbelievable. I don't know what else to say," she said.

But most of all Desrosier said she missed her family. "I think I got through it with the other girls," Desrosier said. "We were all really, really close."

Maj. Roger Pukahi said, "I am proud to say that Bravo Company, 193 stood as guardians of freedom."

Desrosier, who has been either on active duty or a part of the National Guard for the past 15 years, said she, too, is proud of her unit. "I have to say this is the best unit I've been in. I couldn't have got through it without these people," she said.