Deptford Marine comes home to hero’s welcome | Inquirer | 09/14/2007

Deptford Marine comes home to hero’s welcome | Inquirer | 09/14/2007

Cpl. Raymond D. Hennagir, 21, who lost both legs and four fingers on his left hand in Iraq on June 16, came home to Deptford tonight to a hero's welcome.

More than a thousand neighbors and strangers lined the roads leading to his house, surprising and humbling the wounded Marine.

Word got out earlier in the week that he was coming home for the first time from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, and the scene resembled a July Fourth parade.

Two fire trucks were parked at the end of his street, a giant American flag hanging between them, and there were bagpipes, several honor guards, and hundreds and hundreds of flags.

Shirley Baals, 49, who lives on Cooper Street, painted her 6-foot wooden "Welcome Home" sign and hung countless flags in her yard.

"I'm more excited than you are," Baals told Donna English, Hennagir's aunt, who has raised him as her own son since he was 9.

Joyce Faye, 90, wore a sash that read "U.S.A. Star-Spangled Banner" given to her by President Reagan. She served in the U.S.O. during World War II.

"I think our troops need all the support they can get," she said.

Marlene MacAfee, 70, standing with a flag, said, "I just wanted to welcome home the boy who was so injured. I wish they were all coming home and staying home."

From the parade route, Hennagir called Jim English, whom he considers his father, who was waiting at home.

He said, "Dad, there are so many motorcycles escorting us, I can't count them all."

English, surveying the growing crowd in front of his house, said: "Good to know people still care."

When Hennagir reached his house, the crowd cheered. Family members lifted him from the back of a Mustang convertible, where he'd been riding as a celebrity, and put him in his wheelchair.

Hennagir sat in his driveway, stunned by all the support, soaking in the scene, as the throng sang "God Bless America."

Raymond D. Hennagir hugs his mother, Donna English.