The first group of returning soldiers from the 48th Infantry Brigade, many from the Savannah-based 118th Field Artillery Regiment, are scheduled to arrive Tuesday at Fort Stewart.
Lt. Col. Ken Baldowski, a National Guard spokesman, says the remainder of the brigade’s 3,200 troops will arrive in waves through March and into April.
Rome’s Company A, part of the 48th, is expected to arrive at Fort Stewart on Wednesday, said Lyerly’s Jan Johnson, who is helping to organize the homecoming for the unit based out of the Wilshire Road armory.
She said she expects the soldiers to be at Fort Stewart for about a week before they are released.
“We’re shooting for a March 4 ceremony here,” Johnson said. She said that plan could easily change, depending on when they actually get back to the states and how long the processing lasts.
She is organizing a procession that will include three personnel carriers that will take the soldiers from the East Rome Walmart to Dean Street, Turner McCall Boulevard, down Broad Street to Second Avenue to Redmond Circle, then out to the Rome bypass to the back entrance of the armory on Wilshire Road.
That was similar to the route used when the soldiers departed to Afghanistan, Johnson said, and was chosen in part to let Romans show their support.
A small ceremony will be planned at the armory for the estimated 45 to 50 soldiers with the unit. Most of them are not from the Rome area, she said.
Johnson’s son, Justin, was killed in action in Baghdad in 2004. Her other son Joshua was also in the military but has since entered civilian life.
Johnson’s husband, Joe, just rejoined the National Guard after previous stints.
He said he’ll be a member of the Canton unit, which along with the Rome and Cedartown units, is part of the Calhoun-based 108th Cavalry.
Johnson said her husband will be 53 in August and had to ask for a waiver to join.
Polk County and Gordon County officials are also working to firm up their plans for returning Guardsmen.
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