Soldiers of Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 108th Armor are scheduled to return to Calhoun early in the afternoon of May 17.
The Calhoun-based National Guard unit has been deployed in Iraq for the past year as part of the Georgia National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team.
The unit is scheduled to arrive back in Georgia on Tuesday, landing at Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah and going to Fort Stewart for their demobilization.
Soldiers are expected to leave Fort Stewart the morning of May 17 and convoy back to Cahoun, where they are expected to arrive around 2 p.m., according to the National Guard.
The Gordon County Chamber of Commerce is asking businesses to display American flags, yellow ribbons and banners to welcome the troops back home. Businesses with marquees and message signs are being asked to display welcome-home messages as well.
“On the day of arrival, we would like to have the streets lined with people from Exit 312 (Ga. 53) all the way to the armory,” said Ruby Crump at the chamber.
Local officials are planning a welcome-home celebration for the soldiers and their families at the armory on River Street that afternoon.
Two other companies of the 108th, based in Dalton and Canton, are expected to return Sunday night to Fort Stewart. Some members of Rome’s Company A, which was not activated, serve with those units.
The 108th Armor deployed to the Middle East in May 2005, but most of its citizen-soldiers have been separated from their families and their civilian jobs since January 2005, when they mobilized for training at Fort Stewart and Fort Erwin, Calif.
A total of 26 guardsmen from the brigade, including six from the 108th Armor, were killed in Iraq. Members of the 108th Armor were awarded 116 Purple Heart medals for combat wounds.
The 48th Brigade has more than 2,500 citizen-soldiers from Georgia, augmented by nearly 2,000 from Alabama, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico.
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