On this Memorial Day, hundreds of Oregon families are celebrating with their soldiers who've recently returned from overseas deployments.
During the past month, nearly 800 soldiers with the Oregon Army National Guard have completed deployments ranging from 9 months to more than a year. Some provided security in Afghanistan during the drawdown of troops. Others with an engineer battalion worked on soldier housing in Kuwait and U.S. military facilities in Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq and Afghanistan. Sgt. Phillip Steiner is a spokesman with the Oregon Army National Guard.
Sgt. Steiner: "We're just glad to have them home. They went over and had a successful mission. The families are definitely glad to see them, glad to have them back in the states, looking to help them get settled back into civilian life."
Last week, about 400 soldiers based out of the Springfield Armory returned from Afghanistan. In April, soldiers based in Central Oregon also returned from a year in Afghanistan. And members of the 234th Engineer Company returned earlier this month from Kuwait and other countries. Their demobilization ceremony is Saturday, May 30th at West Salem High School.
