Oregon Public Broadcasting

Tuesday will be a day of homecomings for Northwest soldiers. Two units – a National Guard Company from Oregon and an Air Defense Battalion from Washington – will be reunited with their families. Correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

For the last seven months, 44 Oregon National Guard soldiers have been based at Balad Air Base in Iraq. Their job was to fly cargo, personnel and prisoners of war mainly in and out of Northern Iraq.

No soldiers from the Oregon Guard were killed during the deployment.

A battalion from Fort Lewis, Washington was not so fortunate.

Two soldiers from the 5th Battalion, 5th Air Defense were killed during a year long deployment. The unit’s 115 soldiers had multiple duties including serving as an early warning system for incoming mortar rockets.

The two units will be honored at separate homecoming ceremonies – one at Fort Lewis, the other at the Portland Air Guard Base.

Currently more than 6000 Northwest soldiers are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.