Red Bulls ready to return from Iraq
National Guard members with the 34th Infantry Red Bull Division are coming home to Minnesota over the next few weeks after spending the past year in Iraq.
During the unit's one-year tour, members were the command in control for nine of Iraq's 18 provinces.
Maj. Patricia Baker with the National Guard says early in the tour, they handed over the security responsibility to Iraqi-based security forces.
"During that time, they also had over 1,000 different reconstruction projects, that went to help rebuild infrastructure and help improve the lives of local Iraqis," said Baker.
Baker said about 200 to 250 soldiers will come home in each wave. They'll arrive first at Fort Lewis, Wash., for about a week, and will return to Minnesota after that.
The 34th Infantry Division is based out of Rosemount. The 1,200 soldiers who are returning come from more than 275 communities in Minnesota. The Guard expects the entire 1,200-member division back by the middle of February.
Three members of the division were killed in July 2009 from a mortar attack.
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