Jacob Schneider of the Connecticut National Guard, 1st Battalion, 102nd Infantry Regiment hugs his mother Lori Schneider, right, at the William A. O'Neill Armory in Hartford, Conn., Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009. Two units of the Connecticut National Guard are returning home for the holidays, thanks to a fundraising effort to bus them back to the state from bases in Wisconsin and Indiana. They have been training for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan early in the new year.
(AP Photo/Jessica Hill)