Staff File Photo by Matt Fields-Johnson
Members of the 278th National Guard Unit board buses that will take them to train at Camp Shelby, Miss., before they are deployed to Iraq.Units returning from or leavingfor overseas deployment in 2010TENNESSEETennessee Army or Air National Guard278th Armored Cavalry Regiment252nd Military Police Company241st Engineering Installation SquadronGEORGIAGeorgia Army National Guard48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team
Some local National Guard and Reserve units left for deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last year, while other returned home.
The Tennessee Army National Guard's 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment deployed to Iraq for up to a year in February.
The regiment is primarily in charge of security for convoys between coalition bases in Iraq.
The unit previously deployed to the country in 2004.
The Cleveland-based 252nd Military Police company left for Iraq in September 2009 and is scheduled to return home in the summer of 2010. The company's mission was to train Iraqi police during its tour.
The Chattanooga-based 241st Engineering Installation Squadron deployed groups of airmen to various parts of the Middle East and Afghanistan throughout 2009 and 2010.
The Tennessee Air National Guard unit does not deploy together, but rather sends groups to do work at multiple U.S. bases on an as-needed basis, said unit commander Capt. Marty Malone.
"We have extremely high volunteerism," he said. "The members of this unit want to go and want to be a part of the military's mission."
The Georgia Army National Guard's 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team was scheduled to return in early 2010 from their yearlong tour in Afghanistan.
The soldiers of the 48th, based in Dalton, Ga., and Calhoun, Ga., worked in the rural areas surrounding Kabul, Afghanistan to train Afghan Army and police units.
Lt. Col. Ken Baldowski, spokesman for the Georgia Guard, said with the 2009 deployments every Army Guard and Air Guard unit in Georgia has deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001.
"The majority of these are multiple deployments," Lt. Col. Baldowski said.