POCATELLO — Spc. Nolan Thorpe was deployed in Syria on the day his daughter, Vaanya, was born, watching a spotty, live internet stream of her birth from inside a tent with a rickety wooden floor.

Wednesday morning at the Pocatello Regional Airport, Thorpe got to hold his grinning 6-month-old for the first time. He was one of several soldiers with the Pocatello-based 660th Ordnance Company of the U.S. Army Reserve who returned on three flights Wednesday from assignments throughout the Middle East.

With a contingent of supporters present to welcome him home, Thorpe of Pocatello quietly took the child from her mother’s arms, held her up to his eye level and studied her face. Then the tears came.

“I don’t even know how to describe it really,” Thorpe said, still examining his daughter, who was feeling his right shoulder with her tiny hands. “It seems like she recognizes me.”

Thorpe, who was assigned to an ammunition depot, interacted with his daughter during his deployment whenever possible via FaceTime, though his internet connection was poor.

On the day Vaanya was born, March 13, Thorpe said he was fortunate to have the day off.

“I was part of a small group. There was a day shift and a night shift, and most of the people in my group were sleeping at the time,” Thorpe said. “You’d just hear them be like, ‘Hey, congratulations Nolan,’ and go back to sleep.”

His wife, Mirium, said it helped knowing he could “sort of be there.”

“I saw him crying over the phone,” Mirium said. “He still experienced all of the emotions that he would have if he would have been there.”

Thorpe is returning to his job at the Fort Hall Casino, where he hopes to take time off to spend with his family. He’s returned from his second military deployment, which spanned 10 months.

“For the most part, this deployment was completely uneventful,” Thorpe said. “You had a few warning sirens that would go off, but most of it was just drills.”

A decade ago, he was deployed for four years with the U.S. Marine Corps. After the Marines, he joined the Army Reserve, to put his “foot back in the door.”

“Something about the lifestyle always brings you back,” Thorpe said.

Thorpe was the only soldier who landed on the first flight, which arrived at 11:50 a.m., but several people from the community, including Pocatello’s POW/MIA group, the Idaho State Police and fellow soldiers, were there to meet him, some holding American flags or flags representing their organizations.

Staff Sgt. Justin Hillary, who was assigned to the 660th Ordnance Company shortly before the deployment and couldn’t join them, said he’s been in the same position as the returning soldiers, and he knows it’s meaningful when the community shows up at the airport to offer support.

“It means a lot to see that people actually care,” Hillary said.

Hiedi Young, Family Assistance Center specialist with the Idaho Joint Military Family Programs, explained members of the Army Reserve are separated to serve where they’re needed, rather than remaining together, during deployments. The returning troops flew to Fort Hood, Texas, from Iraq but were deployed in several areas of the Middle East.

Troops were flown from Texas to their home-town airports, and about half of the 45 company members reside in Southeast Idaho.

Young said spouses of more than half of the deployed troops were also given “Flat Daddies,” as a tool to help their young children remember them. They’re cardboard cutouts bearing a soldier’s likeness, available through Young’s center and donated locally by Sign A Rama.

Young said a Flat Daddy helped when she was pregnant with her fourth child while her husband was deployed to Afghanistan. Another daughter was 9 months old when he left. Her kids would dress the Flat Daddy for parties and interact with him as if he were alive.

Upon her husband’s return, Young said, “By the time we left the airport, both of those babies were in his arms. They knew him.”