Nice piece I thought on one of 2-1 ID's battalions as they headed home recently.

Exiting Iraq ends mission veiled in ambivalence
U.S. is preparing for the withdrawal of all combat forces by August 2010

By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer

updated 12:00 p.m. ET Oct. 18, 2009
EDITOR'S NOTE — Since January, AP correspondent Hamza Hendawi has embedded at regular intervals with a U.S. infantry company in Baghdad to gauge how the military mission in Iraq is changing. Here, Hendawi accompanies the unit on its journey back to the United States.

BAGHDAD - There are just a few days left before U.S. Army Capt. Nathan Williams finally gets to go home.

Music fills his company's small headquarters as his men cheerfully haul out computers into shipping containers, shred documents and write handover notes. Already the men have vacated their trailers and are living in air-conditioned tents almost the size of basketball courts.