Courtesy of The Birmingham News:

An Alabama Army National Guard unit that has spent the past eight or so months on convoy protection missions in Iraq is due back in the United States next weekend.

More than 150 members of Cullman-based Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 167th Infantry Regiment, are slated to arrive May 18 at Camp Shelby, Miss., then head to Cullman a few days later, said Gina Fulmer, wife of a battalion member, Sgt. Joseph Fuller of Argo.

Charlie Company has been based at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, since September, and its soldiers have traveled thousands of miles throughout Iraq — which they often call “Indian Country” — guarding 18-wheel supply trucks heading to and from U.S. military installations.

Fulmer said that as they wait to fly out of Kuwait, her husband and other unit members are spending their mornings at a swimming pool and the afternoons working out in a gym.

“He said the water is cold,” Fulmer said.