U.S. Troops Deployed Abroad Returning to Aid Recovery

About 300 Air Force personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan from an installation in Mississippi will be sent home to assist their families with hurricane recovery, officials said Saturday.

In addition, a combat brigade of about 3,000 soldiers from the Louisiana Army National Guard will be sent home from Iraq a week earlier than scheduled and turned over to the control of Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco for possible use in hurricane relief efforts.

The active-duty and reserve airmen will end their deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan early and return to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., to help their families and aid in base recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Air Force said in a statement released in Qatar.

They will not be participating in the broader relief effort in the region, officials said.

In addition, about 100 airmen from Keesler will remain at the base instead of being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, with their overseas positions filled by others not affected by the hurricane, the Air Force said.

“We’re robust enough [in manpower] that this wouldn’t upset anything. But it’s the right thing to do to bring them back,” said Lt. Col. Patrick Barnes, an Air Force spokesman at the Pentagon.

Barnes said there were about 20,000 Air Force personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the U.S. Central Command region.

Keesler Air Force Base took a direct hit from Katrina but its staff and their families survived unharmed in a shelter, the base said. Half the base was under water, with crucial functions operating on backup power.

“We are facilitating the effort to expeditiously replace airmen directly affected by this catastrophe with other Air Force personnel,” Brig. Gen. Allen Peck, Combined Forces Air Component deputy commander, said in a statement.

“They can’t effectively perform the mission if their heads and hearts are focused on the safety and welfare of their loved ones.”

Air Force personnel with family living in the hurricane-ravaged region who are not assigned to Keesler must request emergency leave through normal channels, officials said, and leave will be granted on a case-by-case basis.

The Army said the combat brigade of about 3,000 soldiers from the Louisiana Army National Guard were mobilized to active duty and sent to fight in Iraq a year ago. They are expected to arrive home Tuesday.