Soldiers with the Wisconsin National Guard are preparing to come home, after serving a year-long deployment to Iraq. Lieutenant Colonel Jackie Guthrie says members of the Red Arrow 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team are starting to leave the country. “The majority of the soldiers are still in Iraq at this point, but some have already started moving into Kuwait to start the demobilization process, kind of the reverse process that they did when they went overseas” says Guthrie. “They’ll leave Iraq and they’ll go into Kuwait and they’ll do some processing there, and then they’ll continue back to the United States.”
She says after the soldiers are back in Wisconsin they’ll have to spend a few days at Fort McCoy before they can go home. Guthrie says right now members of the 32nd are training their replacements from the 72nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team from Texas. “They’re replacements are on the ground and they’re packing up and getting ready to come back home to Wisconsin,” says Guthrie, noting that there will be a big change in the weather for the troops, “but they’re ready to be home.”
Rick Schuh, WHBY