Some soldiers from the Albany National Guard unit serving in Mosul, Iraq, are on their way home for a 15-day leave.

The soldiers are expected to arrive in Portland sometime tonight or Wednesday morning, according to Maj. Arnold Strong of the Oregon Military Department.

Joe Mesteth, a family readiness group coordinator for Bravo Company, 52nd Engineers, said that four soldiers, one from Vancouver, one from Bend, one from Salem and one from Albany, are expected home.

The leave is part of a series of mid-tour "Rest & Recuperation trips" for soldiers serving in Iraq, designed to boost morale and give tired troops a break. It's the military's largest home-leave program since the Vietnam War.

According to a memorandum from Lt. Col. Michael Teague posted on the Web site www.b52ndengineers.org, not all the soldiers will get a chance for a home leave. Bravo Company will probably get 22-24 slots in the R&R program, and there are 134 people in the company.

Company commanders will take into consideration special events like the birth of child when awarding trips to soldiers. People who've been home on emergency leave, like Albany resident Sgt. Eugene Braith, who came home this summer after his teenage son drowned, won't be eligible for another trip.

The military pays for the soldiers' transport to Baltimore, Md., but soldiers are responsible for their own travel expenses from there to their homes and back to Maryland when their leave is over.

Other Bravo Company soldiers will get trips home after the first group returns to Mosul.