Seven months in the desert living in a metal shipping container a few miles from the Syrian border with a few dozen Seabees and nests of scorpions to keep you company was tough, but for Elizabeth Gonzalez, it didn't compare to the hardship of being away from her two daughters.

"Look at you," Gonzalez said bending down to hug Maria, 7. "You look so different."

Still in her desert camouflage uniform, she reached up under her sunglasses to wipe away tears as she embraced Maria and her older daughter, Isabel, 8.

Gonzalez came home Tuesday morning with about 280 other members of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3, which was stationed in Anbar province in western Iraq for more than six months.

Waiting for their return on a Point Mugu tarmac were loved ones eager to embrace the returning Seabees.

Terri Maxwell with her son, Eric, 5, waited on the return of Builder 2nd Class Jason Maxwell. He'd been so eager to see them that he called his wife from the plane about a half-hour before it landed. As they began talking, her husband suggested they hold off on a conversation until he got there.

"He said, Baby, it's 10 bucks a minute,' " she said.

Along with the crowds holding signs were about a half-dozen women with infants, babies born while their fathers were serving overseas.

Smiling widely, Michael Hayes, a Seabee steelworker who served on the base at Balad, cradled his 3-month-old son, Tobin, for the first time.

His wife, Liz, couldn't keep her hands from shaking slightly as she greeted her husband. The two married just a month before he shipped out. It was the third time Hayes has been deployed, but being away from his wife and son made it much different.

"This one was the toughest," he said.

The Tuesday-morning group was the first wave of returning Seabees from the battalion, which was headquartered at Camp Ramadi Iraq but had crews sprinkled around the vast desert province. A large contingent of men and women was also serving in Afghanistan at the same time, said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Deviney, the battalion's executive officer.

"We were lucky and no one got hurt," said Deviney, noting that there was still a large number of Seabees who remained behind to help their replacements transition into the job.

Crews from the battalion built bridges, small combat outposts and did other support construction work, mostly for Marine units. Deviney was part of a large project deep in the southwestern desert, where the Seabees built a "base within a base," an American military outpost on the grounds of an Iraqi military training center. That work was part of the overall mission that is attempting to turn over security and military operations to the Iraqis.

Deviney, who left behind his wife, Heather, and three young boys — Corbin, 9, Jarred, 6, and Ethan, 1 — is eager to spend time with his family.

"It's good to be back," he said as his older boys grabbed hold of him. "Good to see green, and the ocean and grass."