Local guardsmen arrive home

By JIM TALBERT\Staff
GATE CITY – A group of southwest Virginia soldiers, who served in Iraq, arrived at their home armory July 20.
Jamie Kinkead, family services coordinator for the unit said 20 soldiers from 1033rd and 189th arrived back at the Gate City Armory around 4 p.m. July 20. “They got there a little earlier than expected,’ she said.
The 1033rd is headquartered in Cedar Bluff and the 189th in Big Stone Gap. Members of those units were federalized to fill vacancies in the 237th out of West Point last July when that unit was sent to Iraq.
They traveled to Wisconsin for training and were sent to Iraq last September. One member of the unit died from an illness while the unit was still stateside and three were killed in combat.
Sgt. David Lambert of Cedar Bluff was killed last October. Lambert was the only member of the 1033rd to die in combat.
Kinkead said family members were on hand to greet the soldiers in Gate City and West Point but no formal ceremony was held. She said a freedom ceremony would be held later this year in West Point.