One Group Of Oklahoma Soldiers Return As Another Group Leaves For Iraq

LAWTON, Okla. (AP) -- Family and friends flocked to Fort Sill to welcome about 150 soldiers back home from Iraq.<br/><br/>Members of the 1st Battalion, 158th Field Artillery, who, worked various security

Monday, November 27th 2006, 5:53 am

By: News On 6

LAWTON, Okla. (AP) -- Family and friends flocked to Fort Sill to welcome about 150 soldiers back home from Iraq.

Members of the 1st Battalion, 158th Field Artillery, who, worked various security missions during their deployment overseas for the past year, returned yesterday.

Among them was Specialist Ulysses Henderson, who cradled his eight-month-old son, Jaedyn, whom he hadn't seen since the boy was six-weeks-old.

Henderson -- a Lawton police officer -- says he saw a lot of carnage in Iraq after-the-fact, and said soldiers have sacrificed a lot.

Just as Henderson and the others were returning, about 50 or so were preparing to depart for Fort Dix, New Jersey, with the 245th Engineer Company.

Oklahoma Army National Guard spokesman Colonel Pat Scully says those soldiers will join more than 600 Oklahoma Army and Air National Guardsmen who already are overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq.