Returning soldiers honored in Costa Mesa ceremony

Returning U.S. Army soldiers from the 311th Signal Command were recognized Sunday in a ceremony at the Army Reserve base in Costa Mesa.

About 40 people attended the ceremony, many of them families of the soldiers, who were deployed to Afghanistan and Kuwait from March 2014 to this past March. The soldiers provided networking and other essential services for military communications operations in southwest Asia.

The event at the Newport Boulevard station included speeches by Maj. Gen. Lawrence Brock and Costa Mesa Councilwoman Sandy Genis.

Army Reserve Capt. Jonathan Cecilio said the unit gave Brock a yearbook with pictures of the soldiers’ time abroad. He noted that the deployment was difficult for families back home, but that the unit felt accomplished and was credited by Brock for being productive and efficient toward achieving its goals.

“I believe for those of us who were there, we were very busy each day into the late hours,” Cecilio said. “Most of our time, it seemed like a blur for many of us. The consensus was that the time just kind of blew by because we were so busy.”

—Bradley Zint

Twitter: @bradleyzint