FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska – The 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division is scheduled to complete the bulk of their return home this weekend with the arrival of three flights Sunday.
The 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division deployed to the Northern Iraq province of Diyala in August 2008 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The 1st flight full of Fort Wainwright-based Soldiers returning from their tour in Iraq arrived on August 24th and started a steady flow of flights bringing home the more than 4,000 Soldiers of the Brigade.
There remains a small contingent of Soldiers who are in theater loading and escorting equipment that will be shipped to Fort Wainwright. The last flight with Soldiers from the Stryker Brigade is expected to return before October 1.
A few Soldiers will be responsible for escorting equipment from theater back to Fort Wainwright and are due to return in November.
Soldiers with the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, in conjunction with the Iraqi Security Forces, the Government of Iraq and the Diyala Provincial Reconstruction Team, conducted full-spectrum counter-insurgency operations in the Diyala province of Iraq in order to support the provincial government and facilitate stabilization and growth in the region.
There will be a brief ceremony held in the Administrative Holding Area at Fort Wainwright for each of the returning flights.