Christmas came three days early for the family of U.S. Army Sgt. Randy Dull.

Early Wednesday evening, as the sun set and lit the sky the color of salmon, Sergeant Dull -  who was wounded in Iraq by a roadside bomb two months ago - arrived at the Martha's Vineyard Airport to a hero's welcome.

With fire engines and police cars from each Island town sounding their sirens and flashing their red, white and blue lights, Mr. Dull's airplane pulled to a stop in front of roughly 75 Vineyard residents, who were cheering his return.

Sergeant Dull stepped onto the tarmac and saluted the military honor guard of Island veterans playing a rendition of God Bless America before he was engulfed by family, friends and well-wishers.

"That reception was probably the highlight of my year," Mr. Dull said the next day, sitting at a kitchen table covered with Christmas linens in the Edgartown home of his best friend, Michael Brown. "It was completely unexpected. When I first saw the lights from the sky I thought they were chasing deer off the runway."

Mr. Brown's father, Robert, a dispatcher for the Edgartown fire department, worked with West Tisbury police chief Beth Toomey to organize Wednesday's event. Chief Toomey's own son, Christopher Russell, who is now stationed in Germany, had a similar welcome when he returned from Iraq in August.

"It was wonderful to see the support the Island has for its soldiers," Sergeant Dull said. "The major TV news crews always say Iraq is a mixed conflict, with only the support of about half of Americans. But then you come home and people go out of their way to show their support," he added.

"I've seen a lot of yellow ribbons on cars, and people I don't even know have been coming up to me and saying thanks," the Army sergeant said. "I know a lot of people here might not support Bush, but the support they show for their soldiers means a lot to everybody over there in Iraq."

Sergeant Dull is 24 years old. He enlisted in the Army as soon as he graduated from Martha's Vineyard Regional High School in 2000. Stationed abroad for most of his service, he was home briefly for Christmas last year before leaving for Iraq in February. Mr. Dull spent most of the last year with his division in Baqubah, a city about 150 miles northeast of Baghdad.

He will spend the next two weeks with his family and friends on the Island before returning to Germany for ongoing treatment for his upper back injury, suffered Oct. 21 during a routine late morning convoy.

Sergeant Dull was riding in the back of a humvee that day when he spotted a suspicious tire on the side of the road about 20 meters away. As he turned to tell his commander about it, he was knocked to the floor of the vehicle.

"I didn't see the explosion, but I felt the concussion," he recalled. "All I knew was my back hurt. I didn't think it had penetrated my armor, but then I saw blood slowly dripping from my upper left shoulder."

The sharp two-inch piece of shrapnel just missed the thick protective plate of armor covering Mr. Dull's back, but the Kevlar vest slowed its speed and changed its angle of entry. The shrapnel pierced him right above his left shoulder and made its way all the way across his upper back before lodging into his right collar bone.

The sergeant is thankful for that Kevlar. Had it not slowed the shrapnel, he said it would likely have traveled straight through his heart and out the front of his chest.

"It's humbling," said the young soldier, looking at the small piece of metal that is surprisingly heavy to hold. "I know that my body armor saved my life, along with a little divine intervention, as my dad calls it."

The only soldier injured in the convoy, Sergeant Dull remained in Iraq for two weeks before Army doctors sent him to Germany for further care. The muscles in his back were having a hard time regrowing, and doctors did not know whether he would regain movement in his arm.

Sergeant Dull now has full movement, and the wound has shrunk from 11 inches to eight. It is still uncertain whether he will have feeling near the initial impact area, but he has made a substantial recovery thus far.

"I'm glad to be home so everyone can see that I'm fine and everything's working," said Mr. Dull, who seems humbled by the attention he has received. "I know I'm lucky enough just to get to come home and see my family, because I have some friends that will never be able to."

Sergeant Dull said he has lost about eight or nine friends in Iraq over the last three months, including his company commander.

"You try not to think about it," he said. "You acknowledge they're gone, but you really don't linger on it. You try to take it to the enemy next time."

Despite the losses, Mr. Dull is committed to continuing his career in the military for at least another 15 years. He said he has known he wanted to be in the infantry since his fifth grade class at the Edgartown School, where his teacher -  Mr. Smith -  based a lot of the class structure on World War II history.

"A lot of people have good ambitions, but not everyone can say they've seen the world," said Sergeant Dull, who also served a stint in Kosovo last year. "And we get to see two sides of it. The normal tourist side at times, and the reconstruction efforts. We get to put out that little helping hand - which might not be appreciated by everybody - and do what we've got to do to make the place a little safer."