200 S.C. soldiers arrive as early surprise

More than 200 soldiers from the S.C. National Guard's 218th Brigade Combat Team arrived at Pope Air Force Base, N.C., in a surprise early return, WISTV.com is reporting.

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