The son of a Grand Strand woman is home safe.

Army Staff Sgt. Keith Long celebrated his return home from a nine month deployment to Afghanistan Sunday at the American Legion in Myrtle Beach.

The Blue Star mothers of Coastal Carolina and the American Legion hosted his homecoming.

"We're so proud to have him back home and safe. He did have a couple of close calls. He did have his roadside truck blow up, but thankfully he wasn't severely injured or anything," says Diane Compton, Keith's mom, and a blue star mother.

Long is on leave for the time being. He and his family are stationed at Fort Bragg. He was most excited to see his young children and wife.

"The smiles on my son and daughters face, I don't know the things that they get to go through and experience for the first time or again and you just see the wonderment is still there. You really appreciate that and you think the nine months that you missed were really precious," Long says.

Long was also previously deployed to Iraq for a year with the 87th infantry - global response team.