Guard unit due in Cullman for homecoming

Courtesy of The Birmingham News:

More than 150 members of a Cullman-based Army National Guard unit are to be welcomed home Thursday following a tour of about eight months in Kuwait and Iraq.

Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 167th Infantry, logged more than a million miles guarding supply convoys to and from U.S. military installations throughout Iraq. On Thursday, the soldiers are to board a bus convoy from Camp Shelby, Miss., to the Cullman County Fairgrounds, where they will attend a brief welcome home ceremony before being dismissed to rejoin their families.

Meanwhile, another state Guard unit now in, Iraq, the 1203rd Engineer Battalion, “will be back in Alabama somewhere around the first week of June,” according to a unit spokesman, Capt. Don Barnes. The Dothan-based 1203rd sent about 170 soldiers to Iraq, where it was based near the city of Balad and had about 900 additional soldiers and airmen under its command.

The 1203rd’s mission in Iraq included roadside bomb patrols, helping nearby communities erect security barriers, and working with Iraqi soldiers to repair bomb-damaged roads.

Welcome home, heroes!!!