90 SC Guard airmen to return from Afghanistan

MCENTIRE JOINT NATIONAL GUARD BASE, S.C. (AP) — About 90 members of the South Carolina Air National Guard are returning from a two-month deployment to Afghanistan.

The members of the 169th Fighter Wing based at McEntire Joint National Guard Base near Eastover are expected to return during the weekend.

The exact time and date of the deployment was not being released for security reasons. The unit deployed in April.

In all, more than 400 members of the wing have helped provide air support for ground forces in Afghanistan.

Spokesman Maj. Jim Roth says the deployment is the unit’s largest since Operation Desert Storm in Iraq and is the fourth major deployment for its F-16 pilots since 2002.