Forty-five soldiers rolled off a plane from Afghanistan, onto a bus and finally into the arms of loved ones at CFB Petawawa.
They arrived late Saturday at CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario before being bused to their home base.
"Now the healing begins where we've left a few guys behind," said Capt. Ryan Carey of 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, who reunited with his wife and baby daughter.
"We certainly wish we had brought everybody home but that's not the case. And we'll carry on with our lives."
The military men and women of CFB Petawawa have paid a price in Afghanistan. They and others have taken part in some of the bloodiest Canadian combat since the Korean War of more than 50 years ago.
Of the 44 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat who died in Afghanistan, 15 were from Petawawa.
Cpl. John Clemens of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry recalled the harrowing sound of mortar fire.
"You can hear it being fired and you can hear their projectile rushing towards you slowly," he said.
"That was pretty strange because you would sit there wondering, 'is this going to land on me? Is this going to land 10 feet, 100 feet away from me?' It's a really strange lottery. It got close a few times."
The Taliban are talking about a major spring offensive that could take more Canadian lives.
However, Carey thought the Canadian presence was making a difference.
"On Sept. 2, when we rolled through the town of Bazar Panjwai it was empty - there wasn't a soul in town," he recalled.
"When I left there, it was kind of neat to see every shop was open, there was a school open, there were women and children on the streets."
The Petawawa soldiers started their journey home last weekend, replaced by troops from CFB Gagetown.
Now that they have arrived home, they must begin the sharp adjust away from life outside the wire to life inside the home.
"This tour has definitely been a challenging tour for them," said Maj. Peter Scott of the Royal Canadian Regiment.
"So there's definitely both mental and physical wounds that we haven't encountered as much on our other operational tours. So we have a specialist in place that will debrief these individuals."
Carey said: "The biggest support network for soldiers are soldiers themselves. ... We're the ones who have that experience, that have to look out for each other and stick together and that's what soldiering is all about."
Another 100 troops will be returning late Monday night. About 1,300 troops in total will be turning over the coming month.
The next major deployment out of Petawawa will be the 3rd battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment. That will happen in August 2008.
With a report from CTV's Jonathan Rotondo
