By Liz Oakes
The Cincinnati Enquirer

First Lt. Katie Noll gets a hug from family friend Gail Frazier of Loveland at Noll's parents' home in Green Township Saturday. Noll returned from service in Iraq. The Cincinnati Enquirer/MELISSA HEATHERLY

GREEN TOWNSHIP - For 1st Lt. Katherine Noll and 1st Lt. Jeffrey Brewster, this Memorial Day weekend meant more than games of cornhole and grilling out.

Saturday, the two close friends celebrated their reunion after nearly two years' separation during training and military service overseas - Noll in Tikrit, Iraq, and Brewster near the demilitarized zone of North and South Korea.

Noll's mother and stepfather, Debbie and Tom Mayes, threw a picnic for the two Saturday that drew about 150 family, friends and well-wishers and turned Greenwald Court into a thoroughfare of red, white and blue flags, balloons and streamers.

Brewster, 23, of College Hill, and Noll, 25, said the holiday means more to them this year and not just because they're together.

"I don't think you realize your freedoms in this country until you step outside of it and serve in another country," Noll said.

Noll served in Iraq with a communications unit - the 124th Signal Battalion, 4th Infantry Division.

There were moments of fear, she said, but mostly, "you're too worried about doing your mission."

"I prayed for this day," said Noll's father, Greg Noll, 51, of Blue Ash. "I hope they don't go back."

Noll and Brewster, who's serving with the 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, will be together for now, based at Fort Hood, Texas, beginning June 15.

She's been in the service nearly three years; Brewster, two years. They met in ROTC at the University of Cincinnati.

When she signed up, "I didn't think we were going to be in the war," Noll said.

But, she added, she wouldn't change her decision today.

"I'm a better person," she said.

E-mail loakes@enquirer.com