After 15 months in Iraq, the homecoming for Fort Lewis’s 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division will be nearly completed Tuesday when a main body of troops arrives.

At least 800 soldiers of the brigade’s contingent of nearly 4,000 troops will return in three flights throughout the day. After their arrival, all the brigade’s soldiers will be home except for 400 serving with the “trail party,” who are expected to return by the end of June.

The brigade is returning from its first combat deployment and left for Iraq in April 2007 as part of an escalation of U.S. troops ordered by President Bush last year.

(Seattle P-I)