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Troops' Return Ends IL National Guard's Mission
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) -- The return of about 200 troops means that all but a handful of the Illinois National Guard soldiers sent to Afghanistan last fall are home.

The 3,000 members of the 33rd Infantry Brigade spent a year training Afghan soldiers and police. Eighteen of those troops died.

Maj. Gen. William Enyart commands the Illinois guard. He says his troops faced an increasingly effective enemy in the Taliban fighting an ever-more violent war. But Enyart says his soldiers helped nudge Afghanistan toward a potentially better future.

Kevin Grieco was one of the eighteen killed.

Ralph Grieco is his father. The suburban Winfield man and his wife have spent much of the past year memorializing their son and trying to help other families through similar situations.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
09 28 09 by Newsroom
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