NEW CASTLE, Del. (AP) - A Delaware National Guard unit is set to come home early.
The Wilmington News Journal reports that the 198th Signal Battalion, most of which arrived in Afghanistan in early June, will begin returning to the United States next month.
Guard officials say the unit will return over a period of three months, as bases where the unit is operating are shut down. This means some members of the 432-member communications unit, including 130 South Carolina-based members, will spend only seven or eight months in Afghanistan, instead of the standard Army rotation of nine months.
Returning personnel will first fly to Fort Bliss, Texas, for demobilization that can last two weeks.
The Guard's 153rd Military Police Company returned from Afghanistan more than a month early in September.
Breaking Ground
This morning the Delaware National Guard breaks ground on a new state-of-the-art training building at its facility in Bethany Beach.
The structure is some 14-thousand square feet where the National Guard trains its troops in emergency operations, civil disturbance and combat lifesaving tactics.
The $5 million project includes a geothermal heating and cooling system.
