Nearly 100 Vermont National Guard soldiers to come home

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Nearly 100 Vermont National Guard soldiers will return Thursday from Africa where they were deployed last year, the guard said.

The two units were deployed to Djibouti in eastern Africa as part of “Task Force Iron Gray” in March of 2021 to provide security, crisis response and partnership outreach, the guard said.

The task force consisted of nearly 1,000 soldiers, from Connecticut, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts and Colorado, according to the guard.

The Vermont soldiers are expected to return to the Vermont Air National Guard base in South Burlington late Thursday afternoon.

Last year, the Vermont Army National Guard deployed a total of over 950 Vermonters to locations in Europe, Africa and Southwest Asia. Units will returning through the first months of this year.