
Hundreds of soldiers heading home for the holidays
Augusta Regional Airport was awash with Army BDUs as soldiers participated in the annual tradition of “Holiday Block Leave.” As Augusta’s largest employer, with roughly 30,000 military and civilian employees, this marks the beginning of the holidays for enlisted men and women. More than 4,500 soldiers participated in the departure. The Army anticipates more than 38,000 service members nationwide will travel home from posts across the country. “I’ve been looking forward to it the past 28 weeks that I’ve been in basic training. Then, I’ve been in AIT (Advanced Individual