About 180 members of Maine Army National Guard were officially welcomed back home yesterday after a nine-month deployment in Afghanistan.
Members of the 133rd Engineer Battalion, along with the 1035th Survey and Design Team, were celebrated at a Freedom Salute reception at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston.
They were also welcomed home by the state's congressional delegation and Gov. Paul LePage, who said the unit made the state proud. They returned home about six weeks ago.
Guard spokesman, Capt. Norman Stickney, says the combat engineers were responsible for helping to wind down the war in Afghanistan, moving heavy equipment and tearing down bases. "Part of that deconstruction was approximate 1,650 structures, which was 5,900 truckloads of debris," he says.
The 1035th Survey and Design, meanwhile, provided engineer surveys of job sites and also helped with a major Air Force construction project at Bagram Air Field.