Guard members to receive welcome home in Lincoln

LINCOLN (AP) - A Haymarket Park welcome was being planned for about 250 Nebraska Army National Guard soldiers who will be back in Nebraska after 15 months' service in Iraq.

The soldiers will be bused directly to the Lincoln baseball park from a Wisconsin base, so their exact arrival time late Sunday morning was still pending, a Nebraska Guard spokesman said Thursday.

In January, the Nebraskans in the Guard's 1st Squadron, 167th Cavalry and in the 134th Infantry Detachment (Long-Range Surveillance) were extended an extra 125 days as part of President Bush's plan for boosting U.S. troop strength in Iraq. The normal tours are one year.

The Nebraska units, mostly composed of people from Lincoln, Crete, Beatrice, Fairbury, Fremont and Wahoo, were attached to an infantry brigade containing Guardsmen from Minnesota and Iowa.

Most of the Nebraskans were due home in March.

They were first called to active duty in October 2005 and spent several months in training before deploying to Iraq in March 2006.

Barring major combat or policy changes, Guard commanders have said, about 550 other Nebraska Guardsmen in support units will return from Iraq as regularly scheduled later this year.