IF YOU GOWhat: 230th Sustainment Brigade homecomingWhen: 4:30 p.m. todayWhere: Chattanooga National Guard Armory, 1801 Holtzclaw Ave.
Local soldiers return home today after a 10-month deployment to Kuwait.
Guard spokesman Nate Crawford said 300 of the 1,500 soldiers in the 230th Sustainment Brigade will return today.
Four busloads of the Tennessee Army National Guard's troops depart Camp Shelby, Miss., for Tennessee this morning. Three will roll to Knoxville, Smyrna and Millington.
But local friends and family will be waiting at the Chattanooga National Guard Armory for the bus headed here.
The Chattanooga-based unit left Jan. 8, 2011, for final training before deployment.
The unit led the largest logistical move by the U.S. military since World War II with part of its mission to transport U.S. equipment and personnel out of the southern half of Iraq, according to a Guard release.
This was the brigade's first overseas deployment. The Guard established the unit in 2005 to replace the 196th Field Artillery Brigade, which formally disbanded in 2008, according to Times Free Press archives.
Bethany Miller, wife of Sgt. Chris Miller, said she and other family members visited the soldiers during their post-deployment processing in Mississippi last week.
Miller said the unit got to Camp Shelby on Dec. 28, and most of the soldiers got a day off to celebrate the New Year's holiday.
But Sgt. Miller will get to see his 3-year-old son, Tanner, today.
"I'm just looking forward to seeing my son's face when he sees Daddy," she said.