"This is good," he said, licking icing off his finger. "Maybe now I can gain back the 35 pounds I lost in Iraq," he said, grinning.
Smith grew serious when asked what his thoughts were about coming back home.
"We all came back alive," he said. "We had no casualties in our unit, and I am very, very grateful for that. So many others didn't all make it back."
Three other men from Nicholasville returned home with Smith's unit: Tim Sadler, "El" Sayer and Kevin Dean, who is a chaplain.
Smith was stationed in the Al Anbar province on the west side of Iraq, where his unit provided construction support for the Marines, building a wing on a hospital, repairing runways and installing electrical systems, showers and whatever was needed in many different facilities.
"We built three hundred some odd buildings in all," he said.
Lynn Smith smiled as she recalled the day she met her husband at Blue Grass Airport when he returned from Virginia on Oct 14.
"I had taken our 15-year-old son, Stephen, out of school early so he could be there to greet his dad," she said. "I was excited, relieved and nervous. And then, there he was, and I knew everything was OK."
Smith said he is "absolutely glad" to be back home.
"But if I'm called again, I'll go back," he said.
