National Guards 182nd Soldiers Become Civilians Again

The Impact Of War
SAT MARCH 31, 2012
Home Front: Soldiers Become Civilians Again

Members of the 182nd Infantry Regiment sit through a briefing at Camp Atterbury during the demobilization in Columbus, Ind. Tom Dreisbach / NPR

By EDITOR Over the next year, Weekend Edition will be spending time with the men of the National Guard's 182nd Infantry Regiment as they make the transition from soldiers to civilians in a series called "Home Front."

 We first met the soldiers of the 182nd Infantry Regiment of the Army National Guard about a week ago, on an airport tarmac. They had just landed in the United States after wrapping up a year-long deployment to Afghanistan. The plane touched down in Indiana in the middle of the night. It was raining, but the soldiers bounding down the stairs couldn't have cared less. They were almost running, pausing only when they realized a couple of one-star generals were standing at the bottom of the stairs ready to welcome them back to the U.S. The 600 or so soldiers filed into a noisy airport hangar, their backpacks and M-4 rifles in tow. Under the drone of fluorescent lights, an officer shouted instructions. read more here