Smith and Strittmatter found out she was pregnant just a few days before the news of his deployment.

"It's a very different world for both of us because, I mean ever since Ethan came in it's only been me and him," Smith said. "It's going to be very different having Eddie incorporated it."

Strittmatter's mother, Nancy, said she's always known her son would join the military. She and her husband signed the enlistment papers for him 10 years ago when he turned 17.

"He was always into the dangerous type," Nancy Strittmatter said. "That's why he went into the infantry and ended up in the Stryker."

The Bravo Company, based out of the Frankstown Armory, is returning after nine months with the 56th Stryker Brigade in Iraq.

Their return marks the end of a year-long mobilization of the only styker brigade in the National Guard and more than six months of combat operations north of Baghdad.