SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, May 4, 2021 (Gephardt Daily) — Utah National Guard soldiers returned home after a year-long deployment in Afghanistan Tuesday.
Approximately 15 soldiers from the 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, 211th Aviation Regiment were scheduled to return home from their U.S. Central Command deployment May 4,” said a news release from the Utah National Guard Tuesday morning.
The first flight of approximately 10 soldiers arrived home on an American Airlines commercial flight at 10:51 a.m., and the second flight of approximately five soldiers returned at 3:06 p.m., also on an American Airlines flight.
“The soldiers arriving today were part of a larger contingent of nearly 300 service members who deployed in May 2020,” the news release said. “Service members of the battalion started re-deploying back home in October 2020, and have continued to arrive in smaller groups since then. The group arriving today is the last group of the 1-211th battalion to return home after a nearly year-long deployment.”
A few unit members from the battalion are moving equipment and helicopters back to Utah from Fort Hood in Texas, where all service members were administratively and medically processed before returning home.
“During the deployment, the battalion augmented the 4th Infantry Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade as part of Task Force Ivy Eagle, then later U.S. Forces Afghanistan,” the news release said. “The battalion’s three AH-64 Apache helicopter companies were tasked with providing combat-air support to ground forces operating in the theater area of operations.”
This was the third deployment for the 1-211th ARB to the CENTXOM area of operations, the news release said.
“After 10 long months and multiple iterations of redeployments back home of the 1-211th Aviation unit members, it is nice to have the remaining soldiers finally return back home to their families and rejoin the rest of the unit,” said Mayor Tait Larsen, 1-211th ARB executive officer.
“The soldiers all served their nation with pride and distinction while deployed this past year.”
