Airman 1st Class Brandon Byers smiles Monday at Nellis Air Force Base with wife Megan and daughter Cameron. A miniature Purple Heart is pinned to his shirt for wounds received last month in Iraq. Photo by Ralph Fountain.

Airman 1st Class Brandon Byers returned to a flag-waving, hero's welcome at Nellis Air Force Base, saying it was an emotional experience Monday to land at McCarran International Airport with his wife and daughter at his side and his wounds healing from a bomb that ripped through his Humvee last month in Iraq.

"It's good to be home. It's very good to be home to breathe the fresh air," he told a throng of well-wishers from his unit, the 99th Security Forces Squadron, who had gathered for his arrival outside the Nellis Officers Club. "I feel kind of ashamed at the same time. I feel like I should still be with my brothers and sisters down range.

"But the circumstances being what they are, it's good to be home and alive with my family."

The "circumstances" are shrapnel wounds to his left leg and right wrist and hand, the result of an improvised explosive device that detonated as he and three others were returning to Camp Bucca in southern Iraq from a mounted patrol mission on Oct. 16.

Two of his comrades received less severe wounds and returned to duty.

The 22-year-old Byers, of Waxahachie, Texas, was manning a .50-caliber machine gun in the Humvee's turret.

"I remember everything. We were doing our job, what we're trained to do, and we were going back to eat chow actually, and everything just kind of went crazy," he said.

After the explosion, he said, "I was a little upset. I was mad because ... we were going to be going home soon. The first thought that came to mind was I wish I had done a little bit more, and I plan on doing it."

Col. Paul Curlett, commander of the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, presented Byers a Purple Heart medal before he returned to the United States.

Byers said his arrival earlier at McCarran airport from Texas, where he had been recovering at a Lackland Air Force Base medical facility near San Antonio, "brought a tear to my eye to be honest with you. It felt good to see familiar faces."

His wife, Megan, said her husband "made a promise to me before he left that he would come home and God made that possible. ... He's alive and he's OK, and he's doing great. He's made a lot of progress so far," she said.

Byers said he wants to return to his duty as a security police gunner.

"I'm going to work my butt off," he said. "I'm going to be working very hard to make sure that I can go back to my job."