She said yes! Marriage proposal accepted during troop return ceremony

CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) - The girlfriend of a Holyoke air reservist who returned from Afghanistan on Wednesday morning was excited to finally see him again, but she wasn’t ready for what came next.

Noah Menard of the 58th Aerial Port Squadron got down on one knee and proposed to Ashley Judge during the troop return ceremony at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee. As he slipped the ring on her finger, you know she accepted his proposal of marriage,.

"I mean just having him here, was all I wanted. I wasn't expecting this- so much  more," Judge said.

"She said yes, that's the most important part," Menard said.

Menard was one of more than 20 reservists who were reunited with loved ones at the base, following their six-month deployment to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Aerial port reservists specialize in the loading and unloading cargo in military and civilian aircraft.

Loved ones counted the minutes until they could all be together again. Kimberly Hewins of Springfield was on pins and needles waiting for her boyfriend to return.

"I am very very excited to see him, I have butterflies," she said.

Returning Airman Matt Kadish of Windsor Locks, Connecticut told 22News that he would surprise his children later when they returned home from school.

"I'm sure my daughter, being the emotional girl that she is, will probably be crying her eyes out," Kadish said.

Many of these airmen had been deployed before, and each time came home to to the warmest of welcomes from their families.