By Steve Sanoski
Published:
Sunday, April 19, 2009 2:15 AM CDT
Although they returned home from a year-long deployment in Iraq nearly four months ago, 74 soldiers with the 412th Theater Engineer Command were honored Saturday with a Welcome Home Warrior-Citizen ceremony at the command’s headquarters on Porters Chapel Road.
“Without soldiers like you, the nation would not be able to carry out its strategic plans,” Maj. Gen. Paul Hamm, commanding general of the 412th, told the approximately 200 soldiers and family members in attendance. “You have left a legacy of historic proportions throughout Iraq.”
Along with the homecoming ceremony, the 412th honored 22 reservists with promotions and awarded six Combat Action Badges and one Purple Heart.
The 74 soldiers given the official welcome home Saturday had returned stateside Dec. 29, 2008. They deployed together Jan. 25, 2008, and arrived in Iraq Feb. 23 following training at Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg. The soldiers, whom collectively call 26 states and Germany and Korea home, worked in support of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division, which is headquartered in Baghdad and directs work in the North, Central and South districts. Nineteen of the soldiers are from Mississippi, and a handful are Vicksburg natives.
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