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June 21, 2006

Guard members to return from Iraq today

WARWICK -- Families and friends of the 95 men in the 861st Engineer Company scheduled to arrive today after a year of combat engineer operations in Iraq for the Rhode Island National Guard should be gathering soon at the Warwick Armory.

The unit is expected to land at 1:30 p.m. at the Northstar Aviation Facility, a private terminal for corporate jets located at 544 Airport Rd., according to Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Michael McNamara.

This unit did not suffer any fatalities or serious injuries, McNamara said.

The terminal where the men will arrive is just across the street from the Warwick Armory, and the Guard plans to direct the returning engineers across the street to the Armory for a celebration with their families, McNamara said. The Warwick Police Department will stop traffic on Airport Road so the men can cross, McNamara said.

Although this unit is typically a co-ed unit here in the States, the Guard had to reassign the women in the unit since the 861st was sent over as combat engineers and the military does not allow women to serve in direct combat roles, McNamara said.

This is the first time a returning Guard unit has had to land here, McNamara said.

They couldn’t land at the Quonset Air National Guard base, where they typically do, because everyone there is setting up for the Guard’s Open House & Air Show there this weekend, McNamara said. And it would have been too disruptive at T.F. Green Airport for the men to return there, he said.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 11:43 AM | Permalink

June 21, 2006

Guard members to return from Iraq today

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