Effingham County residents are in the planning mode for the welcome home celebration of Alpha Battery, 1/118th Field Artillery Battalion.

The troops are expected to return home Tuesday morning around 2:30 to Fort Stewart.

The Springfield-based Georgia Army National Guard unit has been deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. They left Effingham last March on their way to Camp Shelby, Miss., for final training before leaving for Afghanistan.

Though the exact date is unknown, it is anticipated that the troops will arrive back home sometime during the first week of March. The date depends on the arrival of troops replacing them in Afghanistan.

Plans are being made for a brief march of the troops through downtown Springfield to the Administrative Complex where they will be greeted by local officials and the troops will formally return to the cities and the county flags carried with the unit throughout their deployment.

The festivities will be brief as the troops will come as group, upon arrival back in the states, and will be anxious to get home to family and friends.

Local citizens are asked to begin preparation to line the route home and especially the area of the march through Springfield (from the traffic light at Springfield City Hall to the County Administrative Complex) with flags, posters and yellow ribbons.