225 Oklahoma soldiers return home

[unhappycamper]

225 Oklahoma soldiers return home
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Oct 20, 2008 6:30:16 EDT

BETHANY, Okla. — The last group of soldiers from the Oklahoma National Guard’s 45th Infantry Brigade returned home from Iraq on Sunday.

Family and friends cheered as about 225 soldiers walked into the Sawyer Center on the Southern Nazarene University campus. After a brief speech by Maj. Gen. Henry M. Wyatt, the state’s adjutant general, the unit was released into the arms of their loved ones.

The soldiers were the last of 2,600 45th Infantry Brigade members who were deployed for a year. Every soldier came back home.

“When you deploy that many soldiers, the odds are kind of against that happening,” Wyatt said. “I think that’s the single most significant accomplishment that every single person came home.”

Wyatt said 300 Guard members from other Oklahoma units remain in Iraq, and another 800 soldiers from the 45th FIRES Brigade will deploy Wednesday from Fort Hood in Texas for their own yearlong tour there.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/ap_oklahomasoldiers_101908/%2e