Major Gen. Jim Butterworth, Brig. Gen. Joe Jarrard and the rest of the Georgia Army National Guard will welcome home 61 Guardsmen of Bravo Company, 1-169 General Support Battalion (GSAB) and 110 Guardsmen of the 876th Engineer Company from Afghanistan during the third week of December. This will be the first Christmas in 13 years that all of the Georgia Army National Guard units will be home for the holidays.

The 876th’s welcome home ceremony will be in Toccoa. The date, time and location are to-be-determined, based on the demobilization process.

On November 2, 2001 the Ga. Army National Guard deployed its first units to Afghanistan. Georgia guardsmen have been continuously mobilized ever since. With the return of Bravo Company 1-169 GSAB and the 876th Engineer Company, we will have deployed over 13,800 Army Guardsmen in support of the War on Terror.

The Georgia National Guard has deployed both Soldiers and Airmen from each of its respective guard components. Altogether, Georgia has deployed over 20,000 Guardsmen since Nov. 4, 2001. The Georgia Air Guard, specifically, has deployed over 6,715 Airmen in support of the War on Terror since January 2003.

While the Georgia Army National Guard units are glad to be home over the holidays, we still have 75 Airmen deployed. Just recently 37 individual Soldiers from the Ga. Army Guard volunteered to continue their deployment. The Georgia Army Guard is schedule to deploy more units in 2015, in support of the overseas commands.