Utah soldiers begin long road home

Relief has arrived for approximately 450 Utah soldiers who have been in one of the most dangerous areas of Iraq for the past year: They have begun the long journey home.

"We think we're going to have them home very close to Father's Day," said Maj. Gen. Brian Tarbet, adjutant general of the Utah National Guard. "I just can't tell you how proud I am of the work they've done in this very miserable part of Iraq."

In a phone interview Wednesday, Tarbet said members of the 2nd Battalion, 222nd Field Artillery unit, are on their way back to Utah via Kuwait and Mississippi.

They've been gone since January 2005, and they have been on the ground in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, since June of last year, along with about 3,000 soldiers from other states.

Tarbet said firefights are a daily occurrence in the Ramadi area, and some Utah soldiers with the 222nd have received serious injuries. Over the past week, three soldiers from other states have been killed in Iraq's Anbar province, where Ramadi is located.

The 222nd was divided into three units in Iraq, with a third of the battalion assigned to urban combat, or the policing of Ramadi. Another unit provided base security and the third unit responded with big artillery during gun battles.

But no Utahn with the so-called Triple Deuce has been killed. Still, Tarbet was a little nervous as his troops headed out of Iraq, traveling roads often planted with deadly roadside bombs.

"This will not be over until that last soldier has landed safely in Kuwait," which should happen during the next day or two, he said. "I now count the hours on this one."

Tarbet, who will be in Mississippi on Saturday, noted that some soldiers in the 222nd include fathers and sons or brothers from Utah. In the past, three generations have served in the same Guard unit at the same time, he added.

A few Utah soldiers are already in Mississippi and more will arrive in coming weeks.

"It's definitely been a difficult mission," said Capt. Christopher Caldwell, who was in Mississippi on Wednesday. His job now is to help receive and process the battalion as it arrives from Kuwait.

Caldwell admitted that he was scared at times in Ramadi. "Just about every soldier who was over there was scared at some point," he said.

The 222nd faced many threats — small arms, improvised explosive devices, vehicle bombs, suicide vests, rockets and mortars. "All that stuff was just right outside our back door," he said.

On the bright side, accommodations were good, he added, and soldiers had the Internet to pass the time, as well as phones for calling home almost daily.