[12/18/03]Leaders of locally based reserve units said the capture of Saddam Hussein will not mean that their deployments will be shortened.

Nearly 273 soldiers in Vicksburg-based units of the Mississippi Army National Guard or the U.S. Army Reserve remain on active duty, officials of the four units said.

About 80 members, including about 26 from Vicksburg, of the National Guard’s 168th Engineer Group departed in February for the Middle East. They have since been deployed inside Iraq, said Mississippi Army National Guard Maj. Danny Blanton.

“We know they’re going to do 12 months in-country,” Blanton said of the 168th’s time in Iraq. “And they could forseeably spend as much as 18 or more months” there, he said, adding that troops’ return dates could be set by as early as next spring.

The Army National Guard’s 114th Military Police Company also has a detachment in Vicksburg. About 75 members, including about eight from Vicksburg, of the 114th are deployed, many to Fort Hood, Texas, Blanton said. The company also has two detachments based in separate cities in central Mississippi.

Blanton said he did not know when the 114th might return. He said the troops are “fulfilling a very important need” at Fort Hood. They are serving as replacement MPs while those normally stationed at the base are overseas.

About 33 members of the U.S. Army Reserve 412th Engineer Command have also been deployed overseas during the global war on terrorism. None have been sent to the Middle East.

Fewer than about 10 members of the 412th have returned from their deployments. All were ending their deployments on schedule after one year, the 412th’s Maj. George Arvanites said.

“Nothing will be accelerated because of the recent history in Iraq,” he said, referring to U.S. forces’ capture of Hussein.

And the Army Reserve’s 386th Transportation Company has said it has about 85 people, including about six from Vicksburg, deployed overseas. Sgt. Samuel Grayson of the company said he had heard no official word on when any of those members might be brought home, he said.

Saddam, the former Iraqi dictator, was captured Saturday in Iraq. U.S. forces had invaded Iraq nearly nine months earlier, on March 19. Ground forces captured the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, April 9, and President Bush declared an end to major combat May 1.