MICHAEL SWAN: ABOUT 150 SOLDIERS RETURN FROM IRAQ >>>

The Fort Lewis PAO sent out this reminder:

Fort Lewis, Wash. - About 150 Soldiers of the 555th Engineer Brigade headquarters will return home to Fort Lewis from a 12-month deployment to Iraq Thursday, September 3. The Soldiers will be reunited with families and friends at a "Welcome Home" ceremony scheduled for 6:00 p.m. at Wilson Gym on North Fort Lewis.

The 555th Engineer Brigade headquarters deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in September 2008, where it was headquartered at Joint Base Balad, supporting Multi-National Corps Iraq. The brigade's mission has been to support combat operations, construction, and geospatial operations in partnership with Provincial Reconstruction Teams and Iraqi Army engineers. Other missions included training Iraqi Army engineers, base closure support, munitions clearance, and route clearance patrols.

This concludes the brigade headquarters' third deployment to Iraq.

The unit first deployed in April 2003 through March 2004, and established its Headquarters at Forward Operating Base Speicher, in Tikrit, Iraq. There, the "Triple Nickel" served as the headquarters of the Task Force Able, which was comprised of more than 3,000 engineers from the Regular Army, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard. Their mission was to assure mobility, force protection, and essential life support to all brigades in their task force area of operation.

The brigade's second deployment was to North Central Iraq October 2005 through October 2006. There, the unit provided mobility, troop construction, training to Iraqi Army engineers, base support, and munitions clearance to their task force throughout all five provinces of Northern Iraq.