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MARQUETTE - The past year has been a long one for many in the U.S. because of tough economic times.

But for Sgt. Dan DeRoche, it was really long.

DeRoche, 26, a 2001 graduate of Gwinn High School, returned to the Upper Peninsula on Tuesday morning from a nearly year-long deployment with the Calumet- and Baraga-based 1431st Sapper Company.

In that time, DeRoche became a father for the first time and was nearly killed three times by roadside bombs in Afghanistan, where his platoon was deployed not far from the volatile Pakistani border.

"Last night was the first time I've felt relaxed in a year," DeRoche said by telephone this morning as he, his wife Jesy and almost 6-month-old daughter Ella spent last night at the Ramada Inn of Marquette.

"It was completely different than the first time I was deployed over there," he said, explaining that he was a single man when he was deployed in 2004-05. "This time, I couldn't ever stop thinking about my family."

While both Dan and Jesy are Marquette County natives - his parents, Dan and Karen DeRoche, live near Gwinn and her parents, Bob and Georgie Maynard, are from Harvey - Jesy and Ella were living nearly 350 miles away in Mount Pleasant, where she works as social worker after graduating from Northern Michigan University.

"It makes it hard, not having any family where we live," Sgt. DeRoche said, explaining that his family is driving downstate today for Thanksgiving, but will return for about two weeks around Christmas to visit Ella's grandparents.

"I just want to sleep in my own bed and play with my cat for a few days," DeRoche said.

The deployment of the 1431st to Afghanistan, which began just after Christmas, included a quick interview with a "60 Minutes" television crew in Khowst province in late May, when vehicles DeRoche was in were damaged by roadside bombs on consecutive days.

"On May 25, we were hit by a 60-pound buried bomb. It blew up our truck," DeRoche said. "Then the next morning, a 120-pound bomb exploded under us. I had a broken ankle and a fractured elbow from that one."

And four days later, Ella was born back in the United States.

"I got home a little bit earlier than I was originally scheduled, when Ella was about seven or eight days old," DeRoche said.

He had several weeks back with his family before returning to Afghanistan.

"When I turned 26 on Oct. 26, I spent 20 hours riding in a clearance vehicle," he said about the latter stages of his deployment.

Now that he's back, DeRoche plans to enroll at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant for the winter semester in January, to complete his bachelor's and hopefully an advanced degree in speech pathology.