Tech Sergeant Robert Johnson holds his daughter Anaya after the 729th Air Control Squadron returned to Hill Air Force Base in Layton, Utah, after six months in Afghanistan Wednesday, July 20, 2011.

Spc Lisa Bradford, right, embraces Sgt Fresia Alder as the Utah National Guard’s 141st Military Intelligence Battalion returned to Salt Lake City, Utah, from duty in Iraq Wednesday, June 15, 2011. The two served together in Iraq. Some 275 soldiers of the 141st deployed in June last year.

Macy Yoder, 4, embraces her uncle Sgt Shawn Yoder, as the Utah National Guard’s 141st Military Intelligence Battalion returned to Salt Lake City, Utah, from duty in Iraq Wednesday, June 15, 2011. Some 275 soldiers of the 141st deployed in June last year.

I was lucky to be assigned to the south door, where for the last time, kidnapper and rapist Brian David Mitchell would exit the Federal Court following his sentencing to life in prison. We should these entrances and exits repeatedly over the past year or more, but to me this was the best one. He’s coming right at us, the look on the marshall, and the breeze playing with his beard and hair.

After that I ran around to the front and found a different angle to Elizabeth Smart and her father Ed speaking to the assembled media horde…