Andanh.com

He has been kicked twice, so he knows to handle the animal with care — even though it’s secure in its milking parlor.

“The cow’s moody,” he says. “Sometimes you gotta let ‘em know you’re back there. They’re scared of you.”

Danny — prison rules don’t allow inmates to be identified by their full names — is serving three years at Wateree River Correctional Institution in Rembert for shoplifting.

He is one of 150 inmates who work on the prison’s 6,700-acre farm. Wateree River provides milk, grits and corn meal for the state’s nearly 24,000 inmates, incarcerated at 28 prisons.

Closely following were three other racers.

A few moments later, another flight — this time 8 year-old-boys — flew by.

This is BMX racing — short for bicycle motocross — and racers said Lexington County’s recently opened facility is among the best they have ever seen.

This weekend the track hosted its first “national” race, one in a series where competitors earn points toward the national championships held in Louisville each year. About 400 racers, some as young as 5 and others eligible for AARP, competed.

• Date of birth: July 22, 1972

• Description: Palmer is 6 feet tall and weighs 165 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes.

• Wanted by: Richland County Sheriff’s Department

• Charges: assault and battery with intent to kill

Chris Haggray, a therapeutic assistant at St. Andrews Middle School, has known Mack since 1976, when he was a freshman at Arnold High School in Savannah. Mack was just starting his career there as an educator.

Mack “was the kind of person you could go to for advice, and he would lay it on the line for you,” said Haggray, who works with emotionally disturbed students.

When Haggray was 8, his father died, leaving behind a wife and seven children.

“They grew up in a very respectful home,” Mack, 57, said in a phone interview from Dayton, Ohio, where he is superintendent. “Their mother led that household. She was always at the PTA meetings and providing support for her kids at school.”

The proposal is an outgrowth of frustrations over plans for a gay-straight club at Irmo High. Principal Eddie Walker cited that as a reason for his resignation, effective after the 2008-09 school year.

The proposal still would allow activities on campus during and after school hours for curricular clubs — those considered directly related to school — such as drama, debate or French, as well as sports teams.

But long-standing clubs without an academic link could be banned from using the school’s name, require parental permission for participation and be forced to raise money off campus, among other things.

Many of these clubs have familiar names. At Irmo High, for example, they include the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, First Priority (a Christian club), the Garden Club, Women in Science, Young Democrats and Young Republicans.

Lexington County authorities have identified a 47-year-old man who drowned in Lake Murray on Saturday.

Orangeburg resident Robert E. Taylor died after jumping from a bridge into the lake Saturday morning. Friends attempted to pull him from the water, but failed.

Searchers found his body two hours later.

The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department and coroner are investigating.

Now that Kershaw County’s school board has committed to building a new elementary school in East Camden, the panel will turn its attention to drawing new attendance lines for the school and two other elementary facilities. School officials say there is no rush to make a decision because construction likely won’t begin until spring 2009. A look at the issue:

How does the board’s decision to build a new elementary school in East Camden affect attendance areas?

Even though it has chosen the site for the new Jackson School, the board still has a difficult road ahead because it must draw attendance lines from scratch, board chairman Joey Dorton said.

Currently, parents living in the Camden area can choose to send their children to any of three elementary schools — Pine Tree Hill, Camden and Jackson.

It’s a philosophy he long has maintained and an example he has modeled while distinguishing himself among the Midlands’ most dedicated community servants.

Blachman recently was presented the United Way of the Midlands’ Alyce Kemp DeWitt Award. The honor recognizes a volunteer whose creativity and passion have had a measurable impact on the community. He was formally recognized during the United Way’s Spring Community Assembly last week.

Blachman is assistant dean for continuing medical education and faculty development at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. He had been a United Way board member since 2001, having served on four agency committees.

But his personal contributions, he said, are just a small part of the broader network of volunteer service in the area.

South Carolina’s shrimp industry is hoping that a media campaign will encourage residents to insist on getting the local crop.

Shrimpers have been struggling to make money because of rising fuel costs and cheaper imports. Wild American Shrimp spokeswoman Kara Viacrucis said that more and more boats are closing their operations.

But Wild American Shrimp and several state groups have partnered to promote local shrimp through billboards and promotions along the coast.

In South Carolina, white shrimp season runs from June through August. Smaller brown shrimp are caught in the fall.

An eastern North Carolina wildfire continued to grow Sunday as a slight increase in wind speeds helped fan the flames and fatten the fire’s footprint, officials said.

Hannah Thompson, a spokeswoman with the North Carolina Forest Service, said Sunday night that the blaze has now burned 32,556 acres, or about 51 square miles, in the area of Columbia, N.C. And officials project the fire will continue its march to the north and east.

Gov. Mike Easley has declared a state of emergency in Hyde, Tyrrell and Washington counties. Nobody has been injured in the fire, and no buildings have been destroyed.

The Associated Press

The high was 101 degrees. The record of 102 was set in 1899, said Chris Liscinsky of the National Weather Service. With the humidity factored in, it felt like 102 or 103 at about 4 p.m., he said.

The outlook for today is for highs to reach 100. A cooldown — so to speak — begins on Tuesday, with a high of 95 and a slight chance of thunderstorms. Temperatures are predicted to reach only into the lower 90s the rest of the work week.

— Ishmael Tate

Just for fun:

Sometimes, the pens are made from a marble-like material in eye-popping hues of royal blue, vibrant red and hunter green. Not your ordinary pens, to be sure. But Lucas has found a loyal stream of customers for his unconventional shop just steps outside the courtroom.

“People from all over the state of South Carolina use the pens,” said Lucas, a nearly seven-year family court bailiff. “Judges come in (for court) and want to see them and buy one.”

Lucas started crafting pens nearly three years ago when his son, Gene, purchased a kit to keep his father busy. Lucas continued to buy the various kits, and now the hobby has turned into a labor of love.

“He takes great pride in it,” Peggy Lucas said about her husband’s craft. “He wants them to work like they’re supposed to.”

She will work at a summer job, hang out with friends and plan for her senior year at Richland Northeast High School.

But for about a week in July, Dean will set up bunk in a Philadelphia high school, working by day to repair area homes and enjoying fellowship by night with peers from about 90 other churches nationwide.

Summer youth mission trips have always attracted a strong showing among Midlands teens, particularly trips organized through churches.

These days, many of those service projects are closer to home for a number of reasons, from the struggling economy to a growing awareness of the needs in our own backyards.

Over the course of its history the Melrose Heights neighborhood, like other neighborhoods, has experienced a number of trends in housing styles and building uses. In some cases, single-family homes have been subdivided for multiple-occupants. Bucking this trend is 1320 Shirley St., a former two-story duplex converted into a single-family residence.

Mirroring the adjacent duplex at 1314-1316 Shirley St., this asymmetrical structure features a dynamic front facade whose three bays feature an eclectic blend of elements. The overall massing of the building and the central projecting bay draws inspiration from the Colonial Revival movement. Those elements are dominated, however, by what originally were open-air porches for each duplex. Today, this rectangular, two-story projection features three-part ribbon-windows on its first story, each containing a principal-light capped by a four-part transom. This fenestration is repeated for visual continuity on the second level, though no glazing was installed in order to retain the benefits of an open porch.

— T. Gordon McLeod and John M. Sherrer III

SCHOOLS

Richland 2 school board: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the district administration building, 6831 Brookfield Road, Columbia. (803) 787-1910; trustees will meet in a private session at 6 p.m. Online agendas are available at http://esb.richland2.org/

Richland 1 school board: 7 p.m. Thursday at the district administration building, 1616 Richland St., Columbia. (803) 231-7504; trustees will meet in a private session at 5:30 p.m. Trustees shifted the meeting day because of the primary elections on Tuesday. Online agendas are available at http://www.richlandone.org/schoolboard/board_agendas.htm

LEXINGTON COUNTY

Congaree National Park is seeking volunteer “citizen scientists” of all ages to assist with the park’s annual Butterfly Count on June 28.

In preparation for the count, a free butterfly identification training session will be offered at Congaree National Park, 100 National Park Road, Hopkins, on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.

The actual Butterfly Count will begin at 9 a.m. June 28 at Congaree National Park and will last until 3 p.m., weather permitting.

The count program is intended to promote interest in butterflies and provide results useful for scientific monitoring of butterflies.

“FIDDLER ON THE ROOF”: 4-6 p.m. June 22 for children; 7-9 p.m. June 22 and 23 for adults and older teenagers, Workshop Theatre Weekend Gallery, 1136 Bull St. Prepare 16 bars of a song and bring sheet music; a pianist will be provided. Dance and script readings will be 4 p.m. June 29 at the theater stage for those called back after the vocal audition. (803) 799-4876

ARTS

TOURNEES FESTIVAL FILM SERIES: 7 p.m. Mondays through June 30, USC Sumter, Nettles Auditorium. Free. (803) 938-3718

USC SUMMER CHORUS I PROGRAM: Meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, USC School of Music Room 006. Open without auditions; $10 participation fee for nonuniversity students. (803) 777-5369

For Graham, that was progress.

When the Seneca Republican appeared at the convention a year earlier, many party stalwarts booed him — a stunning rebuke for Graham’s leading role in pushing immigration reforms that would later fail in the Senate.

“I didn’t have an applause meter, but I thought I was well received,” Graham said of his recent reception at the Columbia convention. “I know Mark and Jim are popular. I’m having an election Tuesday — we’ll see how popular I am.”

In Tuesday’s Republican primary, Graham, 52, faces Buddy Witherspoon, a retired Lexington County orthodontist and longtime GOP activist who is seeking his first elected office.

From tot to teen, they cast rods and caught bream at the private lake of Defender Services Inc. off Garners Ferry Road.

Defender Services, a Columbia-based industrial housekeeping company, has hosted the S.C. Reel Kids event for at least a decade. The program itself is 20 years old, said DNR Capt. Harvin Brock.

“We’re trying to get kids interested in the outdoors — and keep them from being couch potatoes,” Brock said.

About 70 more children participated compared to last year, Brock said.

In Richland, Lexington and Kershaw counties, absentee ballots are down, an indicator of low turnout.

S.C. voters have a chance Tuesday to weigh in on dozens of contested races, from a U.S. Senate seat to contests for seats on county council and school board.

“Usually, in a primary like this where there is no big ticket at the top, it’s the hard-core base that comes out,” said Katon Dawson, S.C. Republican Party chairman.

Though relatively few ballots are likely to be cast, the elections Tuesday won’t lack for story lines.

In a prelude to her trip to the Afghanistan donors conference this week in Paris, Mrs. Bush visited a construction site of a learning center for youngsters that will double as an orphanage. She marveled at how women, who several years ago were being forced by the Taliban to shroud themselves from head-to-toe, now are Afghan National Police trainees. She celebrated the halfway point of a project to pave a road from the airport to the town center in Bamiyan province.

But amid all the signs of progress, it’s hard to be in Bamiyan and not think about how the hard-line Taliban regime destroyed two giant Buddha statues that had graced the ancient Silk Road linking Europe and Central Asia for nearly 1,500 years. All that’s left are massive, empty niches in the sandstone cliff side.

Mrs. Bush, on her third trip to the country, opted not to get a close-up view of the site.

“I frankly just didn’t want to see it myself,” she said. “When it happened, I felt very discouraged. I think still that it’s a destruction of historic magnitude. In many ways, I see it as a symbol of what the Taliban did and what al-Qaida does.”

The troops, from the Guard’s Company A, 2/149th Aviation Battalion, will spend two months training at Fort Sill, Okla., before deploying.

They will be leaving South Carolina this weekend. Farewell ceremonies will be held at 3 p.m. today and 8:30 a.m. Sunday at McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover.

The unit is expected to return to South Carolina in summer 2009.

Names of soldiers — including 112 South Carolinians — their units, dates they died, and the American states from which they came, are etched into the smooth stones.

The dates and units track the progress of the three-month World War II campaign to drive the Germans from coastal France.

Today, ranks of crosses and Stars of David glisten even on the frequent cloudy days of northern Europe. Visitors look down on Omaha Beach, one of the landing points for invasion troops.

Located high on a bluff overlooking the English Channel, the cemetery has the graves of 9,387 soldiers, sailors and airmen who died to free Europe of Nazi domination. An additional 1,557 whose bodies were never recovered are listed on a wall enclosing the Garden of the Missing.

As Shealy paints scenes from Iraq, she places herself in her son’s combat boots in the dusty streets of Baghdad.

She stands watch at dusk as a Black Hawk helicopter flies on the horizon.

She patrols an Iraqi marketplace.

She overlooks a mosque in Mosul.

Instead, he volunteered to serve six more months with the New York National Guard.

On Sunday, Leimbach, 38, of Taylors was killed in Bala Baluk, Afghanistan, when his unit was attacked with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, the U.S. Defense Department said Tuesday.

He became the fourth soldier from the S.C. National Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team to be killed in Afghanistan. Funeral arrangements have not been made.

Sgt. 1st Class Douglas Moorer, who was Leimbach’s platoon sergeant during the first tour in Afghanistan, described Leimbach as the ideal soldier.

They were young and old, of different races and places, but today these women were the same. This Memorial Day, they were at Fort Jackson to honor military men they’d loved and lost.

Angulo’s brother, Sgt. Velton Locklear, was killed Sept. 23, 2006, fighting in Iraq. He wanted “Amazing Grace” sang at his funeral.

“It’s still hard,” said Angulo of Columbia. “Sometimes, it feels like it was still yesterday. No matter how much time has passed by, every day is still a challenge.”

Since the Revolutionary War, more than 620,000 men and women have died in U.S. military service.

Specialist David Lee Leimbach of Taylors was killed May 25, the S.C. Adjutant General's Office reported this afternoon.

Leimbach, a member of the 1st Battalion 118th Infantry stationed in Fountain Inn, had recently completed his tour with the 218th Brigade Combat Team but volunteered to say in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom with the 2nd Squadron, 101st Cavalry (RSTA) of the New York National Guard.

"I am saddened by the news of the death of Specialist David Leimbach," Adjutant Gen. Maj. Gen. Stanhope Spears said. "He was a brave soldier who served his country with honor and valor."

The office provided no additional information about the incident.

It’s not that the combat engineer from Lexington would be embarrassed. He just never was a man who reveled in awards or fancy ceremonies, his parents said.

Now, in the words of the soldier’s mother, Jane Caughman, “Whether he wants it or not, he’s got it.”

Next Sunday, June 1 — in the calendar’s shadow of Monday’s Memorial Day — the 81st Regional Support Command will put Thomas Caughman’s name on its new headquarters at Fort Jackson.

Caughman, 20, was the first soldier in the 81st to die in combat in Iraq. He was killed June 9, 2004.

The building — which will be named after Spc. Thomas Caughman, a Lexington Reservist killed in Iraq in 2004 — will house the 81st Regional Support Command. The building features offices, a computer training lab, an auditorium and displays from the unit’s 100-year history.

The building will be dedicated during a ceremony next Sunday, June 1.

The 81st oversees Army Reserve units in nine Southeastern states and Puerto Rico. That region includes 268 Reserve centers, 23 maintenance shops and three equipment depots.

The 81st is in charge of facilities, payroll, human resources and other management functions for those Reserve units, said Maj. Gen. Charles Gorton, the 81st’s commander.

It was the second day of activities honoring past and present soldiers. The celebration started Friday, featuring a Vietnam War re-enactment.

“It’s an opportunity for the citizens of Columbia to understand what the Army does and to show support,” said Fort Jackson’s commanding general, James Schwitters.

The significance of the celebration was also underscored by the ongoing war in the Middle East.

“It brings a sense of seriousness and realism to the day,” Schwitters said.

“There’s nothing like a year in combat to make you appreciate home,” said Smith, a Columbia Democrat, who commanded a nine-man Army National Guard team in southern Afghanistan.

By day, the team trained Afghan police officers and worked to build trust between the fledgling security forces and skeptical villagers.

By night, Smith and his men hopped on Humvees and tracked down and fought the Taliban across mountainous terrain and vast stretches of dessert.

Smith, 40, said he longed for the green of South Carolina, the shade of its trees, the thickness of its air compared with the thin air of Afghanistan and blowing sand that managed to get everywhere.

Sixteen-year-old Timothy Griffith announced it to waitresses as his family entered their regular hangout, The Palms Grill and Bar.

He said it again when the piano player from his community theater group showed up at the restaurant.

And again, the words “Daddy’s home” when an old teacher stopped at the table to talk.

The teenager might not have looked his father in the eye and said how glad he was to have him back home. But it was evident as he spread the word to everyone he saw Wednesday night.

After a year of her writing prayers inside cards and mailing them to Afghanistan, her son, Spc. Raymond Epps, came home.

“God was with him,” Lucille Epps said.

Raymond Epps, 34, was one of 17 soldiers who arrived Wednesday afternoon at the Newberry armory after completing a yearlong tour in Afghanistan. Reunions like the one between Epps and his mother took place the same day at six other S.C. armories as the last 200 S.C. Guard troops came home.

“I’m glad to be home,” Raymond Epps said. “It’s been long enough.”

• 4 p.m., West Columbia armory, 3528 Platt Springs Road

• 2:30 p.m., Darlington armory, 1764 Harry Byrd Highway

• 4 p.m., Rock Hill armory, 126 Museum Road

• 4:30 p.m., Newberry armory, 275 General Henderson Road

In Iraq, the company provided convoy security and helped train the Iraqi National Police. The unit did not lose a single soldier in combat, said Col. Pete Brooks, an S.C. National Guard spokesman.

The unit, based in West Columbia, arrived in the United States last week and spent a few days at Camp Shelby, Miss., making the transition from active-duty soldiers to Guard members.

The guardsmen were welcomed back Sunday morning during a short ceremony at Airport High School, Brooks said.

Meanwhile, 60 members of the Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team are scheduled to arrive at 4 p.m. today at Eagle Aviation at Columbia Metropolitan Airport after spending a year in Afghanistan.

In a few hours, the 218th Brigade Combat Team soldier would return to civilian life and his family after being away for 15 months. The first three months were spent training in Mississippi, and then he went to Afghanistan for a year.

“I think I’ll be all right,” said Miller, of Columbia. “Maybe we’ll go to the movies, go out to eat and just catch up on things.”

Miller wasn’t alone in contemplating the immediate future as hundreds of S.C. troops reunited with their loved ones this weekend.

But before they could take that bus ride home, the soldiers had to finish what the Army calls “out-processing.” That’s the paperwork and exams that need to be completed before being released from active duty.

They are the five S.C. National Guard troops who received a Bronze Star Medal for valor — the highest medal awarded during the unit’s just-ended yearlong Afghan tour of duty.

In each incident, the soldier cited risked his life to save and care for wounded comrades.

Among the troops honored was 1st Lt. Wade Broadaway, a member of the first group of soldiers picked to mentor Afghan police.

Other recipients of the bravery medal were Sgt. Richard Bush, Sgt. 1st Class Franklin Brooks, Spc. William Slater and Spc. Kodi Tyler.

About 200 soldiers from the 132nd Military Police Company are scheduled to arrive today at Camp Shelby, Miss., after spending a year in Iraq. The soldiers will spend a few days there to demobilize from active-duty to regular Guard status. Then they will return to South Carolina.

Meanwhile, six ceremonies are scheduled this afternoon at armories across the state to welcome home members of the S.C. Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team, which has been deployed to Afghanistan.

The last planeload of soldiers from the 218th Brigade Combat Team, led by the commander, Brig. Gen. Bob Livingston, arrived here Sunday.

The soldiers’ return marked the end of an exodus from Afghanistan that started in late March.

Although there were serious hitches in the redeployment, Sunday’s homecoming was still special for a handful of families who traveled here to greet soldiers.

Three-year-old Will Gunter held a handwritten poster board that welcomed his “granddaddy,” Col. Butch Jacobs of Columbia.

The Afghan police officers did not have uniforms. Few had weapons. Most had a “very disheveled look,” said Hill, a member of the S.C. National Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team.

“They were spacey — very spacey — like they were on drugs. You couldn’t get their attention.

“And they were getting killed a lot.”

A year later, much has changed.

Afghan army

• One Afghan army battalion and a corps headquarters have been declared capable of planning and executing combat missions on their own, without coalition assistance; 18 more battalions are on the verge of being judged capable of operating independently.

13 Afghan army brigades will be fully staffed by summer, operating with more than 100 percent of their positions filled.

• Instead of leaving most forward operating bases during the bitterly cold winter, task force and Afghan soldiers stayed in more than 240 locations. From those bases, coalition troops engaged Taliban insurgents throughout the winter, preventing them from regrouping in the mountains for the traditional spring and summer fighting season.

Staff Sgt. James D. Bullard

The 28-year-old Marion man was a leader and a friend, troops said. Bullard was assigned to a team that was mentoring and training the Afghan police in volatile Kandahar province.

He died Oct. 30 in Spearwan Ghar of wounds suffered when insurgents ambushed his team with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, and machine-gun and rifle fire.

Bullard, who joined the Guard at 17, had been home in September for the birth of his first child.

“We went through a difficult summer, but as we went into the fall and winter, the trend became clear: The government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan can legitimately serve and protect the people of Afghanistan using rule of law.”

— Brig. Gen. Bob Livingston, commanding general of the 218th Brigade Combat Team

“Early in our tour, the police were being destroyed by the Taliban, and the (Afghan) army needed to take the lead in fighting. After we deployed our police mentors, the police started holding ground and gained the upper hand. Their losses decreased seven-fold.” — Brig. Gen. Livingston

“Warriors of Phoenix, you have made a difference. We asked you to stretch further than you’ve ever stretched before, and you did it. You accomplished a mission designed for a task force over twice our size, and the results are magnificent.”

Q. What would you say is the 218th’s top achievement this past year?

A. It’s the effect we had on being able to reverse the momentum of the police. ... By that I mean: Going from them being destroyed to a systematic improvement to where they are holding ground. We’re the ones that made the move to do that.

I will tell you we put these guys (the police-mentoring teams) through a couple of weeks of training. We put them out there with enough support ... and they made it happen. It wasn’t one of those things that was easy to do. It wasn’t one of those things that looked pretty. But it was one of those things that was extremely effective.

Q. What was the low point?

For a couple of weeks, the New Yorkers, members of the 27th Brigade Combat Team, have been flowing into Afghanistan to relieve soldiers of South Carolina’s 218th Brigade Combat Team.

On Saturday, the New Yorkers assumed command of Task Force Phoenix, charged with training the Afghan security forces.

“This is one time when Yankees come in to take over that we don’t mind,” cracked Lt. Col. Mike O’Neill of Goose Creek.

As expected, there has been good-natured kidding as troops from the North and South come together on this small base at the eastern edge of Kabul, the Afghan capital.

The 1,800 troops in the Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team have received — or are awaiting the award of — more than 1,000 honors for heroism and meritorious service.

The Newberry-headquartered brigade’s year-long tour of duty in Afghanistan ends today, when it hands over command of Task Force Phoenix to the N.Y. National Guard’s 27th Brigade Combat.

The highest medal awarded to the South Carolinians, a Bronze Star for Valor, went to five soldiers.

That medal’s cousin, the Bronze Star for Meritorious Service, was awarded to 264 S.C. soldiers. That total includes 58 medals that are pending, awaiting approval from higher officials.

Brig. Gen. Bradley W. May will command the Army’s largest training post, the Pentagon said Friday. May has been head of the Enlisted Personnel Management Directorate at the Army’s Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va.

May will succeed Brig. Gen. James H. Schwitters, who is retiring. Schwitters and his wife will live in Columbia.

At Fort Jackson, May will be responsible for training almost 50,000 new soldiers each year. His experience in the personnel field fits Fort Jackson, which trains troops for personnel, maintenance and other noncombat units, said Lt. Col. Anne Edgecomb, an Army spokeswoman.

Fort Jackson also is home to more than 3,600 active-duty soldiers and has 4,200 civilian employees.

Men, wearing turbans, tunics and vests, stood quietly along one side of the compound. Women in ink-blue burqas, holding babies, pressed against a stone wall.

All were waiting to see a doctor at the makeshift medical clinic, one of a half-dozen civil affairs programs supported by the S.C. National Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team.

In Afghanistan, civil affairs units have been key players in battling insurgent fighters. To beat the Taliban-led insurgency, the United States and its NATO partners need to win the people’s hearts and minds, commanders said.

And that’s the job of civil affairs.

More than 1,600 S.C. Guard members have been deployed to Afghanistan for the past 12 months. The first group of about 160 soldiers arrived home two weeks ago.

This second group of returning Guard members includes soldiers from Darlington, Fountain Inn, North Charleston and West Columbia armories, plus other locations around the state.

The returning soldiers will go through post-mobility processing at Fort Bragg for four to five days before returning their home armories. However, some will remain at Fort Bragg until the entire 218th is demobilized in mid-May.

From staff reports