A Pennsylvania Army National Guard unit that spent almost a year in combat in Iraq was honored Sunday with the presentation of a Meritorious Unit Commendation.
Several dozen members of Charlie Company of the 103d Engineer Battalion, based at an armory in West Philadelphia, turned out for the award ceremony at Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, site of a 1777 battle in the Revolutionary War.
Assigned to Forward Operating Base Summerall, near Beiji, Iraq, in 2004 and 2005, Charlie Company engineers were charged with protecting the main supply routes of north-central Iraq from terrorist bomb attacks. They went out daily in armored humvees, looking for bombs buried along roads and hidden under bridges.
