Returning National Guard soldiers honored

Friday, Dec. 5, 2003 | 9:40 a.m.

The 120 soldiers who make up the Nevada National Guard's 72nd Military Police Co. were scheduled to be honored in a ceremony at the Henderson Armory today.

The unit spent the past last six months in Baghdad guarding prisoners of war at the Abu Grahib prison. The company also spent time in the so-called Sunni Triangle, the area between Baghdad, Ramadi and Tikrit, where resistance to U.S. forces has been the deadliest.

Although the company's 10-month deployment, which included being posted in Fort Lewis, Wash., for four months, officially ends today, most of the soldiers were given passes last weekend enabling them to spend Thanksgiving with their families in Nevada.

The ceremony, which was scheduled to start at 1 p.m., included honoring the 10 soldiers in the unit who were awarded Purple Hearts.

"I am ecstatic the unit is returning intact because this company was in a combat zone nearly every day during its deployment," said Maj. Gen. Giles Vanderhoof, adjutant general of Nevada. "The fact that 10 soldiers in the unit earned the Purple Heart is evidence of their difficult and dangerous mission."