GLASGOW — Hugs, handshakes and salutes abounded Saturday evening as soldiers from the Kentucky National Guard 1st Battalion, 623rd Field Artillery reunited to celebrate their safe return from Operation Desert Storm 20 years ago.

“It was amazing,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Joey Simpson, one of the primary organizers of the reunion. “To see all your friends again and know they’re doing well ... It makes you feel good inside.”

Retired Staff Sgt. Ron Saderholm had a simpler way to express how it felt to see everyone after 20 years.

“It’s good to see people I haven’t seen in 20 years. It’s amazing how old they’ve gotten,” he said.

About 400 soldiers and loved ones attended Saturday’s reunion, which was almost twice as many as those who attended the 10- and 16-year reunions. In the morning, some soldiers participated in a motorcycle ride to Lake Cumberland State Resort Park or a golf scramble at Fox Hollow Golf Course, and then all converged for an evening dinner and presentation at the National Guard armory in Glasgow.

Retired Col. BG Wright flew in from Washington, D.C., for the reunion, just like he did 20 years ago. Wright, a native of Monticello, had already left the 623rd and had been working in the Pentagon for about six months when his old battalion was called up to deploy. Wright said he got the phone call on a Wednesday, and was told to be packed and back in Kentucky by Saturday. So he bought a plane ticket, he said.

The biggest difference in deploying as a National Guard unit rather than a regular Army unit was the sense of community, according to Wright. Many of the men had grown up together. Wright’s father and grandfather had served with the same battalion.

“When you go, you go as a family,” Wright said. “You go as a community. All these guys basically grew up together ... It’s family and it makes all the difference in the world.”

The 1st Battalion, 623rd Field Artillery was comprised of National Guard units from Glasgow, Monticello, Campbellsville and Tompkinsville. As Wright pointed out, the small towns the men came from offered little opportunity, and the military provided that opportunity. Earl “Daddy Rabbit” Hatchett, a cook during Operation Desert Storm, said he would encourage any young man who didn’t know what he wanted to do to go into the military, where he could “learn how to be a man.” Wright said the military helps you improve yourself.

“It’s an important and honorable part of our American lives to have been a soldier,” Wright said.

All of the men spoke with great pride of their time in the service, and specifically their time with the 623rd Field Artillery. Col. Ron Turner, who was a captain in Desert Storm and now oversees the 1st Battalion as well as two other battalions, said that the 1st Battalion’s actions in Desert Storm “set the course for the future of the Guard.” The 1st Battalion was the only combat battalion in the National Guard to be deployed for Desert Storm, which was part of the only combat brigade from the guard. Until the wars with Iraq and Afghanistan began after Sept. 11, 2001, the 1st Battalion Desert Storm veterans were the only Kentucky National Guardsmen who had combat experience.

“This is your legacy,” Turner told the crowd Saturday evening. “All of your hard work, all of the things you did, certainly paid off for this battalion.”

Soldiers who continued to climb the ranks of the National Guard and army, like Turner, Wright and Brig. Gen. Lonnie Culver, give a lot of credit to those who led the 623rd during Desert Storm.

Culver, who was the acting executive officer during Desert Storm and has now risen to be the deputy adjutant general for the Kentucky National Guard and the deputy commanding general for the 38th infantry in Indianapolis, said he learned a lot from his time in Desert Storm, and they couldn’t have asked for a better commander than John Wayne Smith. The 623rd was a close-knit  and hardworking group, Culver said, and soldiers would get up in the middle of the night to work on something if they were asked. They were there to do a job, and do it right.

Retired Col. John Wayne Smith, who was the battalion commander during Desert Storm, said he couldn’t be more proud of his men in Desert Storm.

“The things we asked these men to do, they never blinked, they never failed and they never faltered,” Smith said. “They did some amazing things.”

For Smith, what he celebrates most about Desert Storm is the fact that he managed to keep a promise he made before he went overseas. He promised wives, mothers and children that he would bring their men home, and he did. Every man who was deployed to Desert Storm with the 1st Battalion 623rd Field Artillery came home safely.

“I thank God every day that He allowed me to take 450 men over to the desert in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and bring all of them back home,” Smith said.

The 623rd Field Artillery’s actions in Desert Storm were celebrated at the reunion through photographs, videos, commemorative coins, certificates, paintings and speeches. Some men brought mementos from their time in the desert to show off at the reunion. Retired 1st Sgt. Mike Atkinson pulled his “pet rock” out of storage to bring to the reunion. The small, square-shaped rock is faded by the desert sun, and a capital “A” can be seen etched into it.

“One day after the war ended, I was just walking in the desert when I looked down and saw that rock,” Atkinson said.

“And (I) said hey, that rock has my initials on it ... it was laying there for centuries, waiting for me to pick it up,” he said.

While Atkinson showed off his pet rock, others watched photos and video on the projectors and reminisced about the war. Many said it didn’t feel like it had been 20 years since their deployment.

“You don’t just forget about these people ... They are friends for life,” Wright said.

As he sat surveying his handiwork at the end of the reunion Saturday night, Simpson repeatedly said what an “amazing experience” it was to see his old comrades come back together.

“I’m just so happy for everybody, that they’re doing well and they had an opportunity to come back and be thanked for what they did,” he said.