A National Guard unit’s return from Iraq on Thursday was the first of a wave of homecomings for 1,300 South Carolina citizen-soldiers expected to arrive over the next two weeks.

Ten members of the Eastover-based 268th Engineer Detachment were greeted by friends, families and comrades during a reception at Fort Jackson.

More celebrations are expected through the first week of March, military officials said.

This weekend about 125 members of Company L, 1st Battalion, 151st Aviation Regiment, are scheduled to return to McEntire Air National Guard Station. The exact time of the unit’s return had not been set Thursday.

Another 440 troops of the Guard’s 3rd Battalion, 178th Field Artillery Regiment, which has headquarters in Lancaster, are expected to return to their armories Tuesday.

Two other Guard units — the 51st Rear Area Operations Center of Florence, and the 1052 Transportation Company of Kingstree — should be home by Feb. 25.

Hundreds of South Carolina reservists also are returning after a year in Iraq.

The 175th Maintenance Company, a 220-member Army Reserve unit based at Fort Jackson, has returned to Fort Stewart, Ga., and could be back home by this weekend, a spokesman said.

A 73-member Marine Reserve unit based at Fort Jackson is expected home March 2 after a seven-month deployment to Dijibouti on the Horn of Africa.

About 1,000 reservists and guardsmen from South Carolina remain deployed in Iraq. They are not expected back until this fall.

On Thursday, the troops of the 268th were reunited with 14 comrades, who returned a few weeks ago.

The 268th, which handles firefighting and crash-rescue missions, left Fort Jackson on Dec. 11, 2003. The unit served in Iraq and Kuwait.

Several members of the unit received awards and decorations. Its commander, Capt. Matthew Delk, was wounded in an attack on a convoy. A Maine guardsman died in that ambush.

Reach Crumbo at (803) 771-8503 or ccrumbo@thestate.com.