Sergeant Joseph Riehle greeted his mother and family and friends at the Naperville welcome ceremony.
He was born in Maywood and was a 2003 graduate of South High School in Downers Grove.
Riehle was a gunner in Iraq and an MP in Japan.
In November he returned from Afghanistan where he spent seven months.
Sergeant Riehle and his fiancée Angela Houlihan are planning their wedding.