2600 Minnesota ARNG Soldiers Return Home

Over the past week the last of thousands of MNARNG troops with the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division have returned home after a 22-month deployment including mobilization time and a short stay at Ft. McCoy in Wisconsin.



Here's a video from the Pentagon channel showing SGT John Kriesel greeting members of his unit upon their return. John was injured in December of 2006.

Update 27-07-07: The video doesn't seem to be available any longer. If anyone finds it, let me know. Meanwhile, grab a box of tissues and watch this one from J.R.


This is John together with J.R. Salzman at Walter Reed in April of this year. J.R. was home for the event and has a short post up with some good links.

Some other links from the Dawn Patrol:

SSG Thul of Foreign and Domestic: "Home At Last!!!!! 650 days after leaving, I am finally home. Not the home I left, of course, but home none the less."

The Patriot Guard Riders: "Mission Complete - Welcome Home - HHC Group 1, 1/34th BCT"

Powerline: "Our hometown heroes come home"

“Al Anbar is very different from what it was when we got there,” [CPT Captain Adam Gilbertson, one of the soldiers] said. “A lot of that progress is due to guys like this, working day in and day out, trying to make it safer, and we’re really seeing that attacks have dropped 70 percent in Al Anbar in the last six months. That’s a significant, significant change.”

Thank you and job well done to the heroes of the Minnesota Army National Guard. WELCOME HOME!!