Natalie Boydston / Staff Photographer / nb397205@ohiou.edu

Andy Stone sets off a Civil War cannon under the supervision of Brian Foster of Ohio State University Army Airforce ROTC. Stone’s father, Steve Stone, threw a homecoming party for Andy at his farm in Nelsonville on Saturday.

Andy Stone was overwhelmed when he arrived at his Nelsonville home Saturday and found guests, a band and cannons to salute him.

Stone, who worked as Athens City Street Department director before serving the past 18 months in Iraq, expected a homecoming party but never imagined the celebration his family and friends had in store.

“I had zero idea that all this pomp and circumstance would be here for my return,” Stone said. “But knowing my father, I should have known.”

Indeed, Stone’s father, Steve Stone, did not take the task of planning a homecoming party lightly. “He’s my son, and he’s my hero,” he said. “He’s been in a terrible situation for a year. I just wanted to give him a good homecoming.”

He arranged for Stone’s family, friends, coworkers, Athens Mayor Ric Abel, war veterans and the ROTC from Ohio State University — Stone’s alma mater — to welcome him home.

“We wanted a celebration and not a funeral,” added Jan Stone, Stone’s mother.

About 60 proud and teary-eyed guests stood on Stone’s lawn and watched him return to his house on horseback, marking the first time Stone has been home since March, when he took a two-week break to meet his infant son, A.J.

The combat engineer and National Guardsman held the 9-month-old boy as a Nelsonville community band played the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Abel commended Stone for serving in Iraq — his second tour of duty there — and the OSU ROTC performed Civil War cannon salutes as part of the homecoming celebration.

Seeing his son for the first time since March was “phenomenal,” Stone said.

“He was really surprised at how big he had gotten when he first saw (A.J.),” Stone’s wife, Tanyah Stone, said. The family had used a cardboard cut-out of Stone and a bear that played Stone’s voice to remind the infant of his father.

Now that Stone is safely home, he plans to take a vacation with his wife and possibly attend military school. He will return to his job as street department director in early December.

For now, the family is resting easier because he has returned safely.

“Every time I watched the news and heard a soldier died in Baghdad I thought of him, because it could have been him,” Steve Stone said. “It’s been wonderful (since he came home). It’s a great relief.”