Family and friends will welcome home a group of Iowa National Guard soldiers from central Iowa today (Wednesday). Guard spokesman, Colonel Greg Hapgood, says they will welcome home around 65 soldiers from Company C, Second Battalion 147th Aviation, headquartered in Boone.
The unit flies UH-60 helicopters and has been gone about one year flying peace-keeping missions in Kosovo. Hapgood says the unit soldiers completed their tour without many problems.) He says the unit had an exemplary record and put in a great deal of flight time, while their refuelers handled over 275,000 pounds of fuel in refueling missions.
Hapgood says the soldiers are coming to Iowa from New Jersey were they were processed. The return will drop the number of guardmembers that’re deployed. Hapgood says the guard has some 31-hundred members on active duty, with the vast majority in Afghanistan. The homecoming in Boone is open to the public and set for two P.M. at the Des Moines Area Community College campus gymnasium.