Tennessee soldiers deployed to Iraq will begin returning home from combat deployment on Wednesday, six months ahead of schedule.
About 250 soldiers headed back are from units in the Maryville, McKenzie and Henderson areas. They are scheduled to arrive at the Volunteer Training Site at 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., according to a news release.
The rest of the regiment will return in phases over the next two to three months. The soldiers head first to Camp Shelby for demobilization and then come home. That will last through the end of August.
The mission originally had the 278th in Iraq until December.
“In order to meet the National Command Authority’s timeline of less than 50,000 combat troops in Iraq after Aug. 31, 2010, soldiers of the 278th have begun leaving their Iraqi bases and heading back to the United States,” said Maj. Gen. Max Haston in a news release.
The Tennessee Army National Guard’s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment sent advance party soldiers to Iraq in January, and the main portion of the unit, which has more than 3,400 soldiers, left from Camp Shelby, Miss., in February.