North Dakota's 818th On the Way Home

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North Dakota's 818th On the Way Home

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By Marci Narum, News Anchor / Producer - email

Soldiers of North Dakota's 818th Engineer Company are expected to land on US soil tonight. The guard will confirm their arrival as soon as the plane touches down.

A National Guard spokesman says General David Sprynczynatyk is on his way to Texas to meet the soldiers, where they will go through demobilization.

This homecoming will be bittersweet. 100 Soldiers were deployed... but only 97 come home. Two soldiers died in December.

Sgt. First Class Darren Linde of Devils Lake and Spc. Tyler J. Orgaard of Bismarck were killed December 3rd when an improvised explosive device struck their vehicle.

A third soldier, Spc. Ian Placek of Bismarck, was wounded in the attack.

The Sappers, as the Williston and Hazen-based unit is known, left last April for a year-long mission to Afghanistan to clear mines, build roads and perform of maintenance.

We'll have an update tonight at 10 with more details on the arrival of the unit.

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