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Troops Returning Home For The Holidays

South Dakota Troops are returning home just in time for the Holiday Season. The National Guard hopes the deployment of troops to Afghanistan is coming to an end.

South Dakota military families are anxious for their loved ones to return home from tours overseas. Major Anthony Deiss with the National Guard says getting troops home before Christmas is important.

"The timing couldn’t be better, to have our South Dakota men and women to be home in time for the holiday’s and to be with their families," Deiss says.  "Right now we just had the 152 combat sustainment support battalion, Pierre based unit, returned back to the US on December 10 and we’re hoping that they’ll be back to South Dakota early next week."

Major Deiss says the 235th military police company based out of Rapid City with a detachment out of Sioux Falls, is also planning to be home before Christmas Day. Deiss says one more unit is scheduled for deployment before the holidays. He says this unit could be the last from South Dakota National Guard to be deployed to Afghanistan.

"Hopefully in this next year we’ll be able to get our last unit home and we’ll see the end of deployments of South Dakota National Guard units for the perceivable future," Deiss says.

Deiss says he's proud of all the men and women from South Dakota who have served their country.
 

Nate Wek is currently the sports content producer and sports and rec beat reporter for South Dakota Public Broadcasting. He is a graduate of South Dakota State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism Broadcasting and a minor in Leadership. From 2010-2013 Nate was the Director of Gameday Media for the Sioux Falls Storm (Indoor Football League) football team. He also spent 2012 and 2013 as the News and Sports Director of KSDJ Radio in Brookings, SD. Nate, his wife Sarah, and two kids Braxan and Jordy, live in Canton, SD.