Question on "Insertion" Mission

Had a mission to drop a bunch of men south of Penang (hope I spelled it correctly). Had a problem with corrupt saves because they were done so close to shore (if you can hear seaguls, you're too close to "save", right?). FINALLY managed to to into position and drop the guys into their liferaft.

Horray.

Was I supposed to wait for them to return? There was nothing in the instructions about that. It just said to insert them, which I did.

I still have a good save far enough from the drop-off point where I can go back and do it correctly, if needed.

I was thinking about it this morning - what do they do? Wait for the war to end before making it back home??? Never occurred to me what a real-life situation would have been - I would assume they'd wanna come back home.