5 SD Guard soldiers return from Iraq

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SIOUX FALLS (AP) — Five South Dakota National Guard soldiers have returned home early from the Middle East.

The soldiers who arrived at the Sioux Falls airport Thursday are with the 139th Brigade Support Battalion. The Brookings-based unit with more than 60 soldiers deployed for a year of Iraq duty last June and is scheduled to return this May.

The five soldiers who came home this week had their deployment cut short because of troop reductions following the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Brian Fritz tells the media that he was expecting to be home about Memorial Day, and to come back a couple of months early "is a nice surprise."

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