48th prepares to come home

GAINESVILLE - Gainesville's Charlie Company has ended its mission in Iraq and the entire 48th Brigade is now packing up and getting ready to come home.

Charlie Company's last patrol - the final for any of the units in the 48th was Thursday - and after ten months in the war zone, the 135 soldiers in the Gainesville-based National Guard unit and their buddies can now concentrate on leaving the place.

Charlie Company is an infantry unit that is part of the 4,400-member 48th Brigade Combat Team.

Donna Garrett's husband is part of the 48th - assigned to a Winder unit - and she says as long as the troops are in Iraq they are still in danger, "But, it feels good to know that it has been somewhat lessened."

Garrettt - who works for the state patrol post in Gainesville - says the 48th recently offered a training session for the soldier's families to prepare them for the return, "Life as we knew as normal is not going to be that way again."

The unit is scheduled to leave in about three weeks.