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Iowa National Guard's 'Dirt Warriors' unit returning from Afghanistan
The Iowa National Guard says a homecoming ceremony is being planned for the "Dirt Warriors" returning from Afghanistan.
The 734th Agribusiness Development Team will be honored on Saturday. The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. in the large gym at Johnson High School.
Officials say the unit is the first joint Iowa Army and Air National Guard unit to be deployed overseas and includes about 60 members from around the state.
Their mission was to provide training and advice at universities and provincial agencies and help farmers.
The members called themselves the "Dirt Warriors."
At left, Spc. Jerald McKinney, of Carroll, Iowa and Sgt. Tim Lane, of Iowa City, stand as security near Bar Chage, the demonstration farm that the Iowa National Guard's Agribusiness Development Team has been instrumental in growing, near the village of Asadabad in Kunar province Afghanistan on April 2, 2011. (AP Photo/The World-Herald, Alyssa Schukar)
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