Welcome home, troops of 639th!

If there were ever any doubt about how the Flathead feels about its citizen-soldiers, that doubt was surely erased by Thursday's expansive welcome home for our National Guard troops.

Flags, banners, cheers and throngs of people greeted the men and women of the 639th Quartermaster Company.

It was a heartfelt outpouring of appreciation from people young and old for our neighbor soldiers who have been away from home for 15 months.

We all have a deep sense of gratitude for the sacrifices of the 639th's soldiers who spent long months far from the Flathead - although they were never far from our thoughts and prayers.

And there is abundant relief, too, that the husbands and fathers, wives and mothers all came back safely from the Iraq conflict.

We salute you and welcome you home.

Another group of veterans also had good news this week when it was announced that the local post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars will get a new home in downtown Kalispell.

The post has been on Main Street since 1942, but lack of parking has been a continuing problem at the site. Now, a new facility will be built on First Avenue West at the former home of Skyline Bowl, which was destroyed by fire last August.

The move will be good news for everybody. The VFW will have a new headquarters and more parking. The city will keep a longtime partner downtown, and the former bowling alley site will be a part of the improvements needed to keep downtown healthy.

Any time a law officer is involved in a fatal shooting in Montana, an inquest is held so a jury can decide whether that last, lethal action was justified.

It's a good system, intended to provide checks and balances on a life-and-death decision. And it's a painful system for everyone involved.

For the deceased's family, if they choose to attend, the evidence can be disturbing and heart-breaking. For the officer, the process of having jurors scrutinize what is almost always a split-second decision can be nerve-wracking. And for the jurors, there is a heavy burden of making a correct decision and looking into events that are outside most people's comfort zones.

A Flathead County coroner's jury recently absolved sheriff's deputy Geno Cook in a fatal shooting in Marion in January. Cook is a good officer who will carry that memory for the rest of his life.

Jurors didn't take long. They reached the only reasonable conclusion. The system works. And we're still allowed a little sadness at the events that activate the process, for everyone involved.