NATCHEZ &045; For Marine Cpl. Greg Hollowell, stepping off the airplane in the New Orleans was &uot;like waking up from a long dream.&uot;

After four months in Kuwait and Iraq &045; all the way to Baghdad, in the thick of the fighting &045; coming home to Adams County Saturday evening &uot;was the thing I looked forward to the most,&uot; Greg said.

And as a dozen friends and family members &045; including his wife of three years, Dana, and parents David and Ann &045; stood by, it was clear from their smiles that they agreed. Dana remembers well the day she and Greg found out he would be traveling to the Middle East with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Even for those used to military life, the reaction of wives on the base in 29 Palms, Calif., &uot;was shock,&uot; Dana said. &uot;It’s ‘when are they coming back?’ Then, ‘if they’re coming back.’&uot;

The anxiety Greg’s wife and family felt after he left for the Middle East on Jan. 30 was compounded by the fact that they were rarely able to hear from him.

One of the few telephone calls Greg was able to make home was from Baghdad on April 17, when he traded an MRE (meal ready to eat) for the use of a reporter’s satellite phone.

&uot;We got the call at 3:30 a.m. our time,&uot; David said. But was it a welcome wake-up call? &uot;Oh, yes,&uot; he said, beaming.

The rest of the time, Greg’s parents kept occupied to keep from worrying constantly about their son.

&uot;How do you deal with it? You don’t,&uot; Ann said. &uot;You just keep busy.&uot;

&uot;And pray,&uot; added Greg’s aunt, Susan McIntosh.

Meanwhile, Dana moved back to Natchez to be with her family, who she said provided support that is greatly appreciated.

Still, she would keep the television news on all day and all night, hoping to figure out where her husband was.

&uot;Even when I went to bed,&uot; she said. &uot;I thought I might catch some news.&uot;

Still, Greg said, television reports apparently didn’t fully capture the reality of war in a desert zone. &uot;Those sandstorms were something else,&uot; Greg recalled.

Greg and his fellow Marines donned their gas masks regularly, just in case. And they didn’t even bother taking off their boots, because they never knew when they would have to be ready for combat.

That wasn’t a problem in the showers &045; because they had no showers, except for three quick ones during that whole four months.

But the talk turned serious when Greg, the leader of a mortar squad, tried to describe the combat he faced in the area around Baghdad.

Some moments got to him &045; like the time one of the military vehicles was hit by heavy fire. &uot;Two guys were killed,&uot; Greg said. &uot;I had a couple of good buddies in there.&uot;

Then again, some of the military’s own ammo was so loud it seemed like incoming fire. &uot;We had six artillery pieces 150 meters from us,&uot; he said. &uot;It sounded like we were getting bombed.&uot;

There were some close calls but Greg, who returned uninjured, didn’t spend time talking about those.

Instead, he chooses to focus on the kindnesses people he never knew showed to him during the war.

&uot;It was individuals &045; the people I got letters and packages from, people from Massachusetts and Ohio. Š How they got my name, I have no idea,&uot; he said.

In all, Greg gets 21 days of military leave before heading back to California for six to nine months. Then, he’s back to look for a job in Natchez-Adams, perhaps in law enforcement.

But on Saturday, he was simply content to catch up on hometown news and enjoy a crawfish boil at his own house. As his father put it, &uot;it’s just good to have him home.&uot;