News & Observer | newsobserver.com | Guard soldiers return from Iraq

Published: Jul 23, 2008 12:30 AM
Modified: Jul 23, 2008 01:23 AM

Guard soldiers return from Iraq

 

Story Tools

AP NEWS VIDEO


Requires Internet Explorer
Advertisements
ST. PAULS - About 100 members of the N.C. National Guard are home after a year's deployment to Iraq.

The soldiers are members of the 171st Engineer Company (Sapper). They returned Monday, and a welcome-home ceremony was held Tuesday in St. Pauls, a town in Robeson County.

Sappers are combat engineers who clear routes with explosives and detonate roadside bombs and mines.

The engineers use blast-resistant vehicles including the Buffalo, which has a robotic arm that can examine suspicious items. They use the Husky to tow mine-detecting trailers, and they use heavily armed RG-31 patrol vehicles.

The company went on 500 route-clearing missions and destroyed 130 explosives. One member of the company, Pfc. Adam Lee Marion of Mount Airy, was killed.

All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner.
No comments have been posted for this story. Log in to be the first to comment.


The News & Observer is pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting.

Since The News & Observer does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our website. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not The News and Observer.

If you find a comment offensive, clicking on the exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators, we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.

Hosting Partners of
newsobserver.com

Member of the
Real Cities Network

A subsidiary of The McClatchy Company