Corporal Carl Ruffley, 31, showered six-year-old Kaisha with hugs and kisses on his return from the Middle-East where he had been stationed along with his unit, The Duke Of Lancaster's Regiment, since November last year.
On an overcast day at a TA centre in Bolton, the returning soldiers arrived home amid cheers and applause before being swamped by family members overjoyed at seeing their loved ones home safe.
Kingsman David Cleworth,20, from Atherton, was welcomed home by his overjoyed family including mum Sue Alty and grandad Eric Mercer.
David said: "It's great to be home and fantastic to see the family. What a welcome home.
"I don't want to see any more sand for a long time.
His proud mum Sue said: "To see him back home safe it's, I can't explain, it is just so good.
"It's a worry every day when they're over there especially when you see on the news that there's been trouble.
"But he's home now so we're off to do some serious drinking I think."
Carl, who had seen Kaisha just once in six months, said: "I'm very pleased to be home and now I am my daughter is number one, I can't wait to spend some time with her.
"I came home for two weeks during the six months but the last time I really got to see her was November and I've really been missing her."
With three previous tours of duty under his belt, two to Northern Ireland and one to Bosnia, Carl is something of a veteran.
But this was his first trip to Iraq and, stationed at a British Army base in the desert outside of Basra City, Carl was pleased to see an improvement in safety and security in the southern Iraqi province during his time there.
Carl said: "I've seen a lot of changes since I've been over there, changes for the good.
"When we got over there it was quite bad, people were scared to leave their homes a lot of the time and Basra City was a no go zone, even for Iraqi Army. But since we've got since we've been over there we have worked with the Iraqi forces to the extent that they have managed to get back into the City.
"We've seen loads of improvements from people not being able to go out at night to being able to go to eachothers houses and have a drink. It's really satisfying to see."

ends