Last of 133rd battalion coming home

NEW YORK – The last members of the Maine National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion returned stateside Wednesday, and Maine officials are working hard to get them home in time for Easter.

Twenty-two members of the 133rd returned to Fort Drum in New York and were undergoing the demobilization process, said Maj. Peter Rogers, spokesman for the Maine National Guard. Although most of the 500 members of the battalion returned home earlier this month, Rogers said that these 22 remained behind in Kuwait to tie up loose ends, including cataloging equipment and loading it onto a boat.

They could return to Maine later this week or sometime next week, he said, although officials in Maine are working with those in Fort Drum to see whether the process could be expedited so that they could be back home in time for Easter this Sunday.

“We think it’s going to be sooner rather than later, but we just don’t know at this point,” Rogers said Wednesday evening.

While at Fort Drum, they will complete a process that includes health screenings, turning in their weapons and completing paperwork. Rogers said the process effectively takes them off the active duty rolls and returns them to National Guard status.

The 133rd, its members drawn from all over the state and southern New Hampshire, spent much of its yearlong tour in the northern Iraq region around Mosul helping to build or repair roads and bridges, schools and health clinics.