Returns home from deployment

Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Josh E. Fox has returned to the U.S. after being deployed overseas at a forward operating base in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Operation Iraqi Freedom is the official name given to military operations involving members of the U.S. armed forces and coalition forces participating in efforts to free and secure Iraq. Mission objectives focus on force protection, peacekeeping, stabilization, security and counter-insurgency operations as the Iraqi transitional governing bodies assume full sovereign powers to govern the peoples of Iraq.

Members from all branches of the U.S. military and multinational forces are also assisting in rebuilding Iraq's economic and governmental infrastructure, and training and preparing Iraqi military and security forces to assume full authority and responsibility in defending and preserving Iraq's sovereignty and independence as a democracy.

Fox, a cavalry scout section leader with 16 years of military service, is assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 104th Cavalry, based in Hazelton.

Staff Sgt. Fox graduated in 1990 from Panther Valley Senior High School, Lansford, Pa.