For Builder 1st Class James Davenport, Thursday's arrival at Point Mugu wasn't just a homecoming but a family reunion of sorts.

Coming back from Iraq with the last wave of Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3, the convoy security leader embraced his wife, Jessica, for the first time in seven months and his 7-year-old son, Adrian.

"We were fortunate on this deployment we didn't have any injuries, but seven months is too long to be away from this," he said with one arm around his wife and a hand on his son's head.

His wife said she was among the lucky ones because she was able to converse with her husband, by phone or through e-mail, almost every day. The couple are getting ready for a three-year assignment to Pearl Harbor, she said, and just spending time together.

Then he got hugs from his mom, Elizabeth, and dad, Val. His sister was there, as was his brother, Builder 1st Class Jeff Davenport, who'd also served with the battalion at a combat outpost in Anbar province. With him was his fiancée, Elizabeth Gonzalez, who served in Iraq, as well, as a hospital corpsman with the battalion.

The couple never had a chance to see each other while they were in Iraq but plan on getting married early next month.

Late Thursday afternoon, Davenport was among the last 200 Seabees from the battalion to return from their turn in Anbar province in Iraq.

Cmdr. Tony Edmonds, who also came back with the last group, said his Seabees distinguished themselves during their tour and came out unscathed.

Edmonds had been based at Camp Ramadi, but his crews were sprinkled around the vast desert province of Anbar in western Iraq. A large contingent of men and women were also serving in Afghanistan at the same time.

The crews built bridges, small combat outposts and did other support construction work, mostly for Marine units.

The battalion never had to fire a shot, despite sometimes traveling across the once-violent province and negotiating roads that were booby-trapped.

"Maybe we're the first battalion to come home from a deployment in Iraq having never fired a shot," said Chief Petty Officer Alan Wujcik, who supervised a crew that did convoy security during the tour.

The relatively smooth tour wasn't stress-free however.

"If I didn't get a call or hear from him, I worried," Nicole Rodriguez said about her husband, Builder 2nd Class Joe Richard Rodriguez, who worked at a remote combat outpost near the Syrian border.

It wasn't just the Seabees who were doing hard duty during the deployment.

Waiting on the tarmac for their husbands to come home were about a dozen women with infants, babies born while their fathers were serving overseas.

Mary Sullivan, whose husband, Lt. James Sullivan, was a senior watch officer for the battalion in Ramadi, was pregnant throughout her husband's deployment. She watched over her twin 2-year-old boys, Owen and Jacob, and her daughter Lydia, 4. In September, the couple had a baby girl, Clara.

As Lydia stroked her dad's fatigues, Sullivan said he couldn't make it back for the birth.

"It just wasn't possible," he said.