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He thanked the Charlie Company of the 135th Infantry, their families and their employers for a successful deployment to Kosovo last year. About a year ago, Gutknecht visited the 135th infantry in Bosnia.
"Thank you isn't a term that gets used often enough in the U.S.," Gutknecht said. "Thanks on behalf of the citizens in the First Congressional District and the U.S., as well as the people of Kosovo.
"We couldn't do missions in Iraq or Afghanistan or the Balkans without people like you."
Gutknecht remembered one elderly man who stopped him during his tour of Bosnia last year.
"With a tear in his eye, he told me he could sleep at night because he heard the Humvees," Gutknecht said.
He told of another soldier who wrote to him recently, telling of conditions in Iraq.
"He (the soldier) closed his letter by saying, ‘We won,'" Gutknecht told the nearly 80 members of the Charlie Company as they were preparing for a weekend exercise in Owatonna, Minn. "And that happened because of people like you who are making progress in Iraq and Afghanistan and in Kosovo."
Progress was slow in a place like Kosovo, but certain, said Staff Sgt. Chris Strangstalien of La Crosse, Wis., who spent seven months, 22 days and 22 hours in Kosovo.
"But who's counting?" he joked.
Those months were filled with security patrols, vehicle searches and helping the local citizens solve problems.
"Our job was to make sure there was no infighting," Strangstalien said.
The company also had to quell a two-day riot that erupted March 17.
"People grew up real quick," Strangstalien said. "They lost five years of the peace process in two days and we had to try and find the responsible parties and rebuild trust.
"Each side felt oppressed, but when you look at it, both sides are bloodied."
For Strangstalien, it was his second deployment in three years. His daughter was born the day after he left.
"You'd think you'd get used to it, but it's damn good to be back home," Strangstalien said. "You appreciate the quality of life once you see the poverty over there."
First Staff Sgt. James Goss, of Alma, Wis., said it's nice to see the support of the congressman and the community.
"We feel the support. I was in the tail end of the Vietnam conflict and those guys were my heroes. I had one of them come up to me and say, ‘I wanted you to have a good welcome home that I didn't get,'" Goss recalled. "That conflict was not a lost cause. Those guys made us what we are today. They took something bad and made it good."
First Lt. Allan Hetteen of Minneapolis said it was good for each of the members to shake Gutknecht's hand.
"I have never seen this in my eight years in the guard," Hetteen said of Gutknecht's visit. "It's refreshing to see government involved."
