Families anxiously awaits return of troops to Mason City

The 1133rd Transportation Company is getting closer to home. Saturday a parade in Mason City will welcome the returning soldiers, and Lisa Chisholm, mother of one guardsman, says she’ll be there first to greet him.”I can’t wait to get my arms around my son,” she says, and after that he’ll visit friends and his fiancee, now that he’s home. Brother Chase Chisholm says the families have had some tense times, especially when Brian was hit by shrapnel and wounded in Baghdad. He says it was “scary” to know Brian and other solders had been hurt but not know how badly, as it took some time before they got it clarified that were OK. With the rest of the Forest City family, Chase has been eagerly awaiting the return of the Iowa Guard unit. They got to watch them fly in on Monday, and he says it was exciting for relatives to watch the soldiers land in the US and watch them come out of the plane. About 120 soldiers from the 1133rd will travel to Mason City Saturday for a 10:30 parade, followed by a welcome-home ceremony at Mason City High School auditorium about 11:30. There’s also a reception for Chisholm and Jon Olson at Waldorf College in Forest City, where both graduated in 2003.