After a year-and-a-half away from home, 10 members of the
Pennsylvania National Guard stationed out of the Kane Armory came
home on Friday.

“This is the first time in five years the unit will be totally
home,” said Sgt. John Gillespie of Russell. “We’ve had people in
Germany, Afghanistan, Iraq, on airport duty. I was at the National
Intelligence agency.

“We’re a transportation company,” Gillespie said. “We’re sort of
in demand.”

The troops are part of Detachment 1, Company B, 728 MSB, 28th
Infantry Division.

Gillespie, speaking before the reservists reached Kane late
Friday night, said he believed nine of the troops were based in
Kane, while one may be from the western part of the state but
meeting his family in Ridgway or Kane.

The reservists have been serving in Iraq.

“They were in the Al Anbar province in Iraq,” explained Capt.
Cory Angell, public affairs officer for the Pennsylvania National
Guard.

“That’s a pretty hot area,” he said, adding it’s considered a
stronghold of insurgency.

“They were headquartered in Ar Ramadi,” he said. “I think they
would have done maintenance. If a vehicle was hit with an
improvised explosive device, these guys would see if they could fix
it up. They would be servicing the vehicles and taking care of the
stuff and resupplying the troops.”

Angell explained the unit was used to “back fill” vacancies in a
battalion and wasn’t deployed as a whole.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, the Pennsylvania National Guard has been
very active, Angell said.

“We’re one of the most deployed Guards. Since 9/11, we’ve had
over 16,000 out of 19,000 deployed in one capacity or another,” he
said. “That was our largest deployment for combat since World War
II.”

He added it wasn’t just for the war in Iraq, but Pennsylvania
Guardsmen have helped out after Hurricane Katrina, have done
security at airports and nuclear facilities and have deployed to
other parts of the world.

“We’ve had a little over 4,000 go to Iraq,” he said.

Angell explained the troops were trained for six months at Camp
Shelby in Mississippi, had two weeks of leave, and then were
deployed for a year in Iraq.

“I’m sure they are pretty glad to be back,” he said with a
laugh.

The troops flew from Mississippi to Pittsburgh Friday evening
aboard a “military hop,” Gillespie said, then rode a commercial bus
to Kane where they were escorted into town by the fire department
and greeted by community members.