About 85 soldiers, including 20 from Western Virginia, are scheduled to return home this week after spending most of the year in Afghanistan.

The Richmond-based 276th Engineer Battalion of the Virginia National Guard was dispatched to Afghanistan in February and will begin returning home today.

Most are scheduled to arrive in Richmond, but about 10 will go directly to Bristol.

This is the first wave of soldiers from the battalion to arrive, with two more groups scheduled to return in coming days.

The group arrived back in Mississippi last week, nearly a year after being mobilized for duty.

While in Afghanistan the battalion conducted a variety of missions including removal of more than 15,000 pounds of explosives and the clearance of nearly 45,000 miles of roads to ensure safe passage.

-- The Roanoke Times