"We're here to give him the welcome home he never had," said fellow Wolfhound Spc. Jason Romero.

"He's like a brother," said Spc. Carlos Ortiz.

A little shy and red faced, Wooldridge hugged and shook hands with each of his fellow infantrymen.

He was ready to get back to work, he said.

Last night's welcome was arranged by Capt. David Parkes, Wooldridge's commander.

Parkes' troops received a grand welcome when they returned to Hawai'i in February, but in the back of each soldier's mind was Wooldridge. So Parkes decided to give Wooldridge the greeting he deserved.

"It's just the right thing to do. He didn't get the hero's welcome that we all did with the flags and bands and everything else," Parkes said. "He got flown to about three different medical facilities and finally ended up at Walter Reed (Army Medical Center), and I'm sure a general officer went and shook his hand for his service, but other than that he's been without us.

"We've been thinking about him a lot and we've been tracking his progress," Parkes continued. "So we just thought it'd be the right thing to be there when he gets off the plane."

Wooldridge was on patrol in the Rashad district south of Kirkuk when his platoon was ambushed by insurgents in November. The platoon was under heavy fire when Wooldridge was wounded.

He was rushed to a medical facility in Kirkuk, where doctors amputated his leg from his knee down. Wooldridge was sent to Germany for further care and then Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., for six months of rehabilitation.

Other members of the platoon were wounded, but none as seriously as Wooldridge, Parkes said.

November marked the start of operations in Fallujah and increased insurgent activity.

"That was over a two-week period where it was kind of a blur," Parkes said. "All of our police check points were burnt out and a lot of our police were attacked so we increased our operations to around-the-clock patrols and (Wooldridge) was down there on one of their patrols when he was ambushed."