{"id":58853,"date":"2026-06-02T21:03:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T21:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/58853\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T21:03:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T21:03:24","slug":"fort-stewart-soldiers-return-home-after-deployment-to-europe-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/58853\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Stewart soldiers return home after deployment to Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fort Stewart soldiers return home after deployment to Europe<\/p>\n<p>3rd ID soldiers return to Fort Stewart after nine-month deployment<\/p>\n<p><a aria-label=\"Kendra Smith profile page\" class=\"css-15eikfp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wjcl.com\/news-team\/bdc86b63-e7ba-404c-8e61-ce14b8afb6e2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bdc86b63-e7ba-404c-8e61-ce14b8afb6e2_1659993833.jpg\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" alt=\"Kendra Smith\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a>FORT STEWART, Ga. \u2014<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"0\">Soldiers assigned to the 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade are returning to Fort Stewart and reuniting with their families after a nine-month deployment to Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"1\">The homecoming ceremony Monday night marked the first wave of returning troops from units deployed as part of the 3rd Infantry Division&#8217;s mission in support of NATO allies and partners.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"2\">During the deployment, soldiers trained alongside allied forces across Eastern Europe to strengthen military cooperation and help deter aggression against NATO member nations.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"3\">The deployment was part of the Army&#8217;s ongoing rotational presence in Europe, which increased following Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine and focuses on maintaining readiness and supporting NATO&#8217;s eastern flank.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"4\"> One soldier made it home in time for his 29th birthday. And Specialist Joel Johnson reunited with his 2-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"5\">&#8220;A lot of emotions for sure. You know, just glad to be back in the States, be reunited with my family as well,&#8221; said Johnson. &#8220;And, you know, just see what this future has in store for all of us, you know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"6\">Army officials said the soldiers participated in multiple training exercises during the deployment, including live-fire drills with allied forces. The unit also tested and validated its mission command systems through coordination with higher headquarters and subordinate units.  <\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"7\">Monday&#8217;s ceremony on Cottrell Field marked the beginning of what is expected to be a series of homecomings as additional soldiers complete their overseas rotations and return to southeast Georgia. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Stewart soldiers return home after deployment to Europe 3rd ID soldiers return to Fort Stewart after nine-month&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26545,4,34326,5653,31747,12699,34327,34328,19584,34329],"class_list":["post-58853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-europe","tag-deployment","tag-europe","tag-fort","tag-home","tag-id","tag-return","tag-reunion","tag-soldier","tag-soldiers","tag-stewart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}