Breaking news from The Birmingham News:

About 140 members of the Anti-Terrorism Battalion, a Bessemer-based Marine Reserve unit, are expected back in the U.S. next week after completing a tour in Iraq.

The reservists, with the battalion’s Charlie Company, hail from battalion sites in Jackson, Miss., Tallahassee, Fla., and Chicopee, Mass. The unit’s ranks also include about 33 Alabamians.

Charlie Company has been in Anbar province since September, attached to the 1st Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment. Its mission has included protecting convoys carrying supplies and prisoners, searching houses, patrolling streets and manning checkpoints.

Master Gunnery Sgt. David Holladay, a

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A large Alabama Army National Guard unit will be deploying to Afghanistan next year. The 877th Engineer Battalion spent nearly a year in Iraq from 2003-2004, and with several hundred members, was one of the largest state National Guard units to deploy to Iraq. It will be the largest Alabama Guard unit to serve in Afghanistan, and will be the second Army Guard unit from Alabama to have a second tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Courtesy of The Birmingham News:

While in Iraq, the 877th was based in the northern city of Mosul, and its mission included building military facilities,

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Per The Birmingham News:

An Alabama Army National Guard quartermaster unit is now training for an upcoming tour in Iraq. Army Guard spokesman Norman Arnold said about 15 members of the 1207th Quartermaster Detachment (Water Distribution) from Goodwater have been training at a military post for several weeks and should deploy by late spring or early summer.

“They can literally push water 10 to 15 miles out from a central point,” Arnold said.

Meanwhile, members of the 158th Maintenance Company, with headquarters in Tallassee and a detachment in Dadeville, also are preparing for an Iraq deployment and should begin intensive training at an

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