A regional spokesman wouldn't confirm it, but it appears the Bismarck-based 439th Engineer Detachment is heading home.

Yvonne Ebertz, of Bismarck, said her husband's unit has been in Kuwait since March 21 and will fly to Fort Carson, Colo., on April 7. She is married to Maj. Chris Ebertz.

"They were supposed to be home (to North Dakota) the weekend of Easter, but now it should be the weekend after that," Ebertz said. "I'm trying to keep my anxiety levels down."

The 40 soldiers in the 439th moved into Baghdad last April. They helped reconnect power supplies, fix sewer systems and perform other engineering tasks.

Dale Rummel, a spokesman for the Army Reserve in Bismarck, confirmed the 439th was in Kuwait. He referred any other questions to Claude McKinney, a regional spokesman for the Reserve. McKinney said there was no official information on the unit moving out of Iraq, but that he'd heard rumors the 439th was in Kuwait.

"That would be in concert with the original time frame for their return," McKinney said. He added that no solid dates for the unit's return had been set.

Ebertz said her husband has had a good experience in Iraq, working with Iraqi engineers and Iraqi people in their homes. She said an official welcome-home ceremony for the 439th would likely be held in June, but that family members would like to have smaller celebrations before that.

Separately, word came from the North Dakota National Guard that every soldier from the 142nd Engineer Combat Battalion has returned to the United States.

Fifty-one soldiers from North Dakota and Minnesota - who had stayed behind in Kuwait to load the battalion's equipment onto a ship - touched down at Fort Carson just after 2 a.m. Tuesday.

"If you look at today, today is one of the best days for the 142nd," said Maj. Daniel Job, the unit's senior noncommissioned officer. "Because we are now all home."