Today, on the second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, 160 members of the Wisconsin Army National Guard’s 147th Command Aviation Battalion returned home Wednesday from the Middle East after nearly six months of being overseas.

45 soldiers from the battalion will still remain on duty in Kuwait for another year, though.

This week the Pentagon also announced that some National Guard and reserve troops could expect their tours overseas to double, meaning homecoming for those troops may not come until Spring 2004.

“While we’re happy many of the 147th’s soldiers [came] home this week, we were disappointed to learn how long the homecoming for 45 other members of this unit will be delayed,” Wisconsin’s Homeland Security Advisor Maj. Gen. Al Wilkening said in a press release Tuesday.

After hearing concerns from the families of the remaining troops, U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison), U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-La Crosse) and U.S. Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl wrote a letter to Department of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld seeking an answer for the inconsistent policy concerning deployment of troops in the Middle East.

“Those in the Army National Guard have suffered the added challenges posed by the lack of predictability in the duration of their deployment,” the letter stated.

The letter also talked about the unfairness of this policy in terms of the “more predictable deployment concept” used by the Air National Guard and active-duty Army troops.

The letter not only highlighted the 147th Aviation Battalion, it also addressed the potential for extended deployments of the Wisconsin-based 32nd Military Police Company, which has about 160 people in the Middle East, and the 724th Engineering Battalion, which has about 500 people there. There are about 830 Wisconsin Army National Guard troops currently in Iraq and 100 in Kuwait.

“This is an issue that will affect other troop regiments across the country,” Baldwin’s Press Secretary Mark Webster said. “We’re hopeful it’ll get a response. I think families serving over there deserve an answer.”

The 205 members of the 147th were called for active duty Feb. 2 and deployed to Kuwait March 23. The 45 remaining are now expected to stay overseas until March 22, 2004 and would not be released from active duty until sometime in April 2004, Baldwin said.

The lawmakers said family members are under the impression that the helicopter pilots and crews are flying very few missions and, instead, are flying “to keep their skills fresh.”

“When a portion of a unit is asked to remain in theater after others have been sent home, questions about unit integrity inevitably rise,” the lawmakers wrote. “The unit members and their families are proud to serve our nation in time of need; however, two lengthy activations in an 18-month period is asking a great deal of a National Guard unit.”

The new Pentagon order was signed Friday night and affects about 20,000 U.S. troops.