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HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah (AP) -- About 170 airmen from Utah's Hill Air Force Base have returned home from a six-month deployment in Iraq.
Members of the 729th Air Control Squadron provided radar air surveillance and command support to over 37,000 sorties during their deployment. They returned Wednesday.
But even as the Iraqi military takes more on-the-ground control, it still isn't equipped to police the skies.
An agreement with the Iraqi government requires all U.S. troops to be out of the country by the end of 2011.
But the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, said last year that Iraq's military will be unable to secure its air space if all American troops withdraw from the country.
Members of at least one Utah National Guard helicopter unit have been told to expect orders into Iraq in 2012.
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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
