BY Susan K. Lamb, Special to the News

If all goes well, the last members of the 269th Engineer Company are expected to return to Live Oak next week.



According to Florida National Guard Chief of Public Affairs Lt. Col. Ron Tittle, the soldiers still in Kuwait are expected to arrive in the states as soon as this weekend at Fort Stewart.



A homecoming celebration is being planned for these last returning soldiers with the local National Guard unit. Keep your banners hung, your signs out and get ready to welcome home the last soldiers from the 269th Engineer Company and Well Drillers Detachment.



Lt. Col. Tittle said there are three soldiers who are with the Well Drillers Detachment and seven from the 269th Engineer Company still in Kuwait waiting to return home once the equipment is loaded and enroute home. Although there are others with the group, those soldiers were moved into the 269th during the last year from Oklahoma and Texas, Lt. Col. Tittle said. Those soldiers may, or may not, fly directly to their home states when they return to the US, but Lt. Col. Tittle could not say if they would return to Live Oak with the local unit before going to their home states.



Please watch the Branford News, www.nflaonline.com and listen to Q98.1 and WLVO106.1 for up-to-the-minute information on their return.