Local soldier receives emotional welcome home

A sea of emotions filled the Salisbury airport Saturday morning. Dina Parrish’s eyes filled with tears of joy.

She says, “It’s just amazing to finally see him home.” Dina hasn’t seen her son Bradley in a year. He’s been serving over seas in Yemen with the marines and is based in California.

When Dina got word that her son was able to move up his flight to come home Saturday, she rushed to get him the ultimate homecoming.

She continues, “I was up until three o’clock in the morning working on this sign, so a lot of love and energy went into it.”

However, she didn’t stop there. Dina got a hold of Jeff Merritt, the president of Operation We Care. The organization is a non- profit dedicated to assisting military men and women.

In under 24 hours, Merritt was able to round up more than fifty strangers to welcome Bradley home.

Merritt says, “We’re proud to do it; proud to be a part of it.”

Christine Walsh, with the Ladies Auxiliary VFW Post 194 says, “I just wanted to thank him for serving our country and serving all of us.”

Psychological studies have shown that transitioning from high- stress combat zones to civilian life can be one of the most difficult parts of serving in the military. Bradley agrees, but says a welcoming like this makes it much easier.

Bradley Parrish, lance corporal in the U.S. Marines says, “It’s overwhelming, but it just helps ease into it just knowing there’s people there for me.”

That ease is allowing him to focus on enjoying the short time he has with his family and eat one of his mama’s home cooked meals he’s been missing.

Bradley goes on, “Spaghetti. I have not had that in a long time.”

Operation We Care will be holding a packaging party Sunday May 17th to fill care packages for soldiers serving over seas.

Organizers say anyone is welcome to help and if you would like more information contact Jeff Merritt at 410-713-8940.