Day 2: It’s Quieter, Just as Satisfying : Reunion: Troops come home with only a fraction of Saturday’s fanfare. ‘Better late than never,’ one says.

It was dark, late and cold, but Kim Watrous and three of his buddies would not budge from their post on a dirt shoulder along Cactus Avenue early Sunday morning. The four Vietnam veterans had come to the gate of March Air Force Base outside Riverside with a clear purpose in mind.

“We wanted to let these Marines know they’re welcome home just as much as those who arrived yesterday,” said Watrous, standing beside his red Chevrolet truck adorned with an assortment of American and military flags. “We also wanted to give them the homecoming we never got.”

Day 2 of Operation Homecoming in Southern California got started beneath moonlit desert skies with only a fraction of the historic fanfare that welcomed returning Marines the day before. In one instance, the welcoming band was scrapped because it was too dark to read music.

The crowds and excitement grew throughout the day, however, as a continuous stream of planes and buses arrived at military installations from Edwards Air Force Base to El Toro Marine Air Station to Camp Pendleton, including the first contingent of Navy commandos treated to an uncharacteristic homecoming reception at the normally secretive North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado.

But most well-wishers and returning servicemen agreed that quality--not quantity--was the buzzword of the day. With fewer cameras, reporters, politicians and onlookers, it was almost easier to savor the moment.

“Better late than never,” said Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew Jones, after a 23-hour flight in a noisy, windowless military transport jet ended at March AFB Sunday afternoon. “Some of the troops got to come here on a 747 and have stewardesses walking up and down the aisle. . . . All I cared about was that it had seats and they were going home.”

At North Island, emotions ran high and the wind blew hard as family members of SEALs, who deployed last Aug. 8, waited for planes that were several hours late. At 2 p.m., a Hawaiian Air commercial plane landed with 210 members of Naval Beach Group 1, followed by a green, bulky military C-141 plane, carrying 115 more SEALs.

On board, Lt. Warren Inouye marveled at the prospect of seeing his newborn baby.

Petty Officer Kerry Fischer, 30, envisioned hugging his four children and wife Julie.

“The hardest thing was the isolation,” Petty Officer David Albonetti said of his seven-month stint in the Gulf. “You couldn’t get away and there was no release. There were no other places to go. No women. Nothing.”

In an unprecedented welcoming ceremony for the Navy’s most secretive warriors, about 300 relatives pressed up against one another, straining for a glimpse of the arriving planes. Usually, the commandos arrive home from clandestine missions in the dead of night. They arrive by bus, and there is no welcome.

“We sacrifice a lot and it’s overlooked. This,” said Albonetti, 29, scanning the crowd, “this, is a big hoo-yah thing.”

There was also a lot of waiting at Camp Pendleton, where 300 friends and relatives gathered on a drill field. They broke into cheers when returning Marines from Charlie Company finally rounded a barracks, marching in formation, and then stood at attention.

Both the Leathernecks and the red-and-yellow company standard that blew crisply in the chilly wind were still coated with the grime and sand of living on the front line. The company was the second of four that trickled back to the San Diego County base Sunday.

“Welcome home, and thank you for an outstanding job,” Marine Col. Robert Tilley told the men, who were among the first U.S. troops to be deployed along the Saudi-Kuwaiti border. They were also part of the Marine contingent that secured Kuwaiti city one week ago.

“There are two ways to spell Marines,” Tilley said. “One way we already know of. The second way is P-R-I-D-E.”

At March Air Force Base, a flight scheduled to arrive at 1:30 a.m. was delayed about two hours, making a late night even later for about 100 well-wishers, but they waited patiently in the dark anyway. The small crowd broke into cheers when returning Marines boarded buses and finally rolled out the front gate.

“The looks on their faces was well worth the waiting and the cold,” said Vietnam vet Watrous, 41, of Corona.

It had been very different 20 years ago, Watrous and others said.

Bob Scott, 44, who served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, recalled how quickly he shed his uniform when his flight home touched down at McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, Wash.

“You didn’t want people to know you were in the military back then,” Scott explained.

“But you still got spotted because of your haircut,” Watrous interjected.

“In a way,” Scott said, meeting the eyes of his buddies, “supporting the troops now takes a load off us, too.”

Cathy Rosenberger, 30, also of Riverside, spent the night on the side of Cactus Avenue with several Girl Scouts from Troop 541. The girls passed out yellow balloons to onlookers and handed Girl Scout cookies to servicemen in passing buses.

“The girls love this,” Rosenberger said. Her 9-year-old daughter, Sarah, cried last night because “she was so happy . . . she wants to hug a Marine,” she said.

It was also very early in the morning--about 2 o’clock Sunday--when 120 Navy men and women were welcomed home during a brief ceremony at the Naval Hospital in Oakland. The medical personnel had spent seven months on the hospital ship Mercy, a converted supertanker that served in the Persian Gulf.

It was too dark for the scheduled band to play, but hospital spokesman Paul Savercool said there was “quite a crowd” of relatives and other well-wishers. “It was festive,” he said, “a lot of tears of joy.”

About 800 returning Marines touched down Sunday at Norton Air Force Base near San Bernardino, setting off another wave of welcoming celebrations across the High Desert as a convoy of buses made its way to Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center. Crowds along California 62 in the desert were smaller than Saturday but no less exuberant.

“Everybody is just happy to see the Marines come home,” said Mareine Yu, who runs the Country Kitchen restaurant in nearby Joshua Tree.

Sunday marked the first homecoming for Marines at the El Toro Marine base in Orange County. About 75 friends and relatives crowded the airstrip to greet 60 Marines from Transport Squadron 352.

Triumphant servicemen also arrived Sunday in Arkansas, Texas, South Carolina and Maryland. In many parts of the country, domestic duties claimed top priority for troops, including at least one who went from being newly returned to newlywed.

Rod Hanson, a Navy corpsman, married Julie Prilipp in a late afternoon ceremony Saturday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, completing wedding plans they had to postpone because of the war. He also saw his 2-month-old son, Tyler, for the first time.

“I think he’s a precious gem,” Hanson said. The newlyweds will have to wait a few days before their honeymoon--Hanson only had a weekend pass.

At Ft. Hood, Tex., Becky Bieranowski welcomed two family members Saturday when her infant daughter was born about an hour after the return of her husband, Army Sgt. Steve Bieranowski.

Murphy reported from Los Angeles, Lait from Riverside. Times staff writers Nora Zamichow and James Gomez in San Diego contributed to this report.