Organizers of Operation Holiday Homecoming say they've raised enough money to bring Vermont National Guard Troops home for the holidays before they deploy to Afghanistan.

A fundraising effort to help bring Vermont National Guard troops home for the holidays so far has raised $150,000 that will be used to charter buses.

Pam Blair's two sons are in the Vermont National Guard and both left last week on a deployment that will take them to Afghanistan.  VPR's Steve Zind spoke with her last week about what she's feeling as her sons prepared to leave.

The largest deployment of the Vermont National Guard in the past 60 years got underway this week. 

Reporter Steve Zind talks with VPR's Mitch Wertlieb about the hundreds of members of the Vermont National Guard that today, begin their journey to deployment in Afghanistan

The first group of Vermont National Guard soldiers is leaving the state for training before heading to Afghanistan for a yearlong deployment.

A Vermont National Guard F-16 jet had an "in-flight" emergency this morning and had to jettison its external fuel tanks into Lake Champlain.

Towns across the state are finding that the process of identifying which old roads are public thoroughfares and which are not can be complex and sometimes contentious.

Vermont National Guard Adjutant General Michael Dubie says that while the Guard's upcoming mission in Afghanistan may be changing, it's too soon to know for sure what that entails.

Vermont's Adjutant General talks about a changing mission in Afghanistan, and how Vermont's National Guard troops are preparing for deployment.

A state investigation found no evidence that the state's prison in Springfield discriminated against members of the National Guard who were working there. 

Vermont National Guard troops will face a different, possibly more dangerous mission in Afghanistan.  We learn more specifics about their mission, and how it fits within the larger U.S. strategy.  Also, an update on FairPoint's continuing problems, and using wasps to find a destructive beetle.

A state investigation found no evidence that officials at the state's prison in Springfield discriminated against members of the National Guard who were working there. 

Vermont troops going to Afghanistan later this year may face a different, possibly more dangerous mission. The Pentagon is now re-assessing how to use the 1,500 members of the Guard.

Several members of the Vermont National Guard who were working as temporary corrections officers at the state prison in Springfield, say they were systematically denied permanent jobs because of their upcoming deployment.   Some say they were fired outright.   

Vermont Guard officials say preparations for the upcoming deployment to Afghanistan have gone more smoothly than in the past.  They say that's largely because they've had plenty of time to get ready - and training has been better than in previous deployments.

Details of the largest post WWII deployment in the Vermont National Guard's history have been announced.  We'll talk about the mission they'll undertake in Afghanistan and preparations on the home front.

Fifteen-hundred members of the Vermont Army Guard will go to Afghanistan early next year.  It will be the largest deployment of Vermont Guard members since World War II.

This summer, work will begin on a school in an Afghan village, built in memory of Vermont National Guardsman Tom Stone.

A former Vermont National Guard soldier has been sentenced for stealing weapons while in Iraq, mailing them to his home in New Hampshire and trying to sell them.

An effort to redevelop a Burlington armory into a community recreation center is getting a boost from a $166,000 federal grant. Vermont Congressman Peter Welch announced the grant at the Robert Miller Community and Recreation Center.

Vermont is facing the largest National Guard deployment since World War II. Some 1,600 part-time soldiers could leave for Afghanistan by the end of this year.

Senior officials with the Vermont National Guard say they have extensive programs in place to support military families during a major deployment set to begin late this year.

Lawmakers in Montpelier will get firsthand testimony today about how the pending deployment of Vermont National Guard members will affect their families and the state.

The Vermont National Guard is gearing up for a deployment that could send up to 1,800 soldiers to Afghanistan by year's end.