Welcome home guys!

42nd Aviation Brigade return home from Iraq.

The 112 members of the 42nd Division's Aviation Brigade all went to Iraq and all came back alive.

Yesterday, the National Guard soldiers and their families gathered for the first time since the brigade's safe return in October to celebrate with a traditional summer cookout outside the New York State Armory in Patchogue.

Beneath a green khaki tent, about 100 people ate hotdogs and hamburgers as a DJ spun tunes such as "Stayin' Alive" and "God Bless the U.S.A." A clown painted American flags on their children's cheeks.