The Chinook helicopter that went down in Afghanistan on Saturday, killing 30 Americans, was part of the replacement unit for the Hawaii National Guard’s B Company, whose members returned from Afghanistan and reunited with family and friends Wednesday evening at Wheeler Army Airfield.

Had the soldiers with B Company, 1st Battalion, 171st Aviation Regiment, stayed in Afghanistan just weeks longer, the ill-fated mission to deliver Navy SEALs and other troops likely would have been theirs, officials said.

Sgt. Bill Sapolu, 34, a flight engineer with the Hawaii unit, was among those who knew pilots and crew on the downed chopper.

Hawaii crews did what’s known as "left seat, right seat" cockpit training with the replacement unit, which included Colorado National Guard and Kansas Army Reserve members.

Sapolu was among returning Hawaii soldiers wearing a black armband with the names of the five crew aboard the downed Chinook, which had the call sign "Extortion 11."

"It was tough. We were leaving on the same day (the crash) occurred," Sapolu said with his wife, Christina, and daughters Kayla, 6, and Karly, 18 months, by his side.

Sapolu knew Chief Warrant Officer 2 Bryan Nichols of Kansas City, Mo., one of the pilots who was killed.

"It’s a mission that we were doing prior to them relieving us," said Sapolu, who was based at Forward Operating Base Shank in Logar province.

B Company was mobilized in August 2010 and deployed to Afghanistan two months later.

The approximately 150 soldiers and their 12 CH-47 Chinooks were based at four locations: Bagram Airfield, FOB Salerno in Khost province, FOB Shank and Kandahar Airfield.

About 140 soldiers returned Wednesday and the remainder are expected back home today.

The unit’s mission included combat resupply and operations in support of ground units.

Over 10 months, the unit flew more than 1,400 missions with 6,500 combat flight hours and transported about 69,000 passengers.

Officials said the crews flew their last mission on Aug. 1.

Capt. Johnny Wandasan, the commander of the unit, said his Chinooks "got shot at often," although none was damaged.

Saturday’s Chinook crash "did bring it home for all of our soldiers because we worked really closely with either the folks that were on that mission or participating with that mission," said Wandasan, who went to Aiea High School and Hawaii Pacific University.

The soldiers turned in M-16 rifles Wednesday at a big maintenance building at Wheeler, filled out paperwork and marched in formation to a separate section of the building where more than 600 ecstatic family members and friends waited, gave them a standing ovation, a lot of screams and applause.

"This unit had a dangerous and very difficult job to do, and they did it well," Maj. Gen. Darryll D.M. Wong, the head of the Hawaii National Guard, told those assembled.

With the word "dismissed," families and soldiers raced to one another.

Cpl. Andrew Barroga, 22, who worked in flight operations, said he felt "blessed, blessed" to be back.

"It’s been rough. It’s been a rough, tough year. Long days, long nights. I missed the family," said Barroga, who was in Kandahar.

Spc. Roselani Kaluhiwa, 22, from Kahaluu, who was a door gunner in Afghanistan, had her 6-year-old son, Keaka Lavelle, back in her arms again.

"It was hard to be away from my son that long — he grew up without me," she said.

Being reunited with him was "the best feeling in the world," she said.