Marines get bombarded with love upon return

A Marine gets a warm welcome Friday in New River, North Carolina.

NEW RIVER, North Carolina (CNN) -- The U.S. Marines were overwhelmed in North Carolina on Friday -- by their lonely spouses, anxious parents and beaming children.

Marines who spent seven months abroad in the U.S. war against terror were flown to the Marine Corps Air Station in New River.

They flew into the base on choppers from the USS Bataan just offshore and stood at attention in formation as their friends and relatives waved and screamed.

There were nearly 400 of them -- the air combat element of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. They were among Marines dispatched to Afghanistan last fall to help hunt down terrorists.

CNN NewsPass VIDEO Nearly 400 troops of the air combat element of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, dispatched to Afghanistan last fall, return to North Carolina (April 19) Play video   EXTRA INFORMATION Gallery: Marine homecoming

When they broke formation Friday, their loved ones charged them with gusto. Soon, the crowd was a sea of people embracing, kissing, and laughing in tearful reunion.

One young woman said that her children regard their Marine dad as "a superhero, up there with Superman, Batman."

When one ecstatic Marine was asked how he felt about returning home, he said: "It's unbelievable. Can't even describe it."

There are about 2,200 Marines in the 26th. The unit's ground combat element returned home Thursday.

Never before has a Marine Corps unit operated so far inland; this unit was as far as 700 miles from a beach when it was in eastern Afghanistan.

The 26th seized the Kandahar airport, reopened the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, searched caves and helped build a detention facility for enemy prisoners in Kandahar. They also worked very closely with Army Special Forces.