Three state agencies are teaming with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and veterans organizations to help members of the 81st Brigade Combat Team transition back into civilian life.

Three agencies – the Washington National Guard, the State Department of Veterans Affairs and the Employment Security Department – are delivering a series of briefings at Fort McCoy, Wis., to the 2,400 Washington citizens who are returning from a yearlong deployment to Iraq.

The sessions include information on pay, benefits and transitioning back into civilian life. Topics include VA claim, finding employment and career training. Four women service officers are at the post in a private area to provide assistance to unit’s female soldiers, and mental health counselors are available to all.

The process should take about six days, according a Camp Murray spokesman.

"We know these brave men and women just want to get back to their families," Gregoire said in a release. "But we also know what can happen if veterans don’t take care of any combat-related issues they may come home with. Just look at my generation, Vietnam veterans, who are only now contacting the VA for help. This Washington state team is going to welcome our National Guard members home the right way by bringing the services to them before they get home."

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars are also sending representatives to help the homecoming effort.

Fort Lewis will receive its new garrison commander Thursday.

Col. Thomas H. Brittain will assume the post, tasked largely with running day-to-day operation and supervising growth and construction on post. He takes over for Col. Cynthia Murphy, who has commanded since Aug. 15, 2006. She will take a staff position at I Corps.

The ceremony is 10 a.m. Thursday at Memorial Stadium.

Brittain, an infantry officer and West Point graduate, comes to Lewis after studying at the Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pa.

Murphy won’t be at the ceremony; she relinquished command on July 17 and left early for treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The Olympian has an interesting story today about claims from an Olympia antiwar group that a civilian employee of Fort Lewis' force protection fusion cell spied on their meetings for nearly two years.

The group says the employee, John Towery, passed himself off as a fellow anarchist and became an administrator on the group's e-mail listserv.

Fort Lewis, meanwhile, said an officer has been appointed to conduct an inquiry into the allegation. And here's what Fort Lewis spokesman Joseph Piek had to say about it: "Mr. John Towery performs sensitive work within the installation law enforcement community, and it would not be appropriate for him to discuss his duties with the media," he wrote in an e-mail to The Olympian.

The 81st Brigade Combat Team is coming home.

The first 150 soldiers from the Washington National Guard’s largest unit arrive at McChord Air Force Base tomorrow morning, 11 months after the brigade was mobilized for its second deployment to Iraq.

The plane is expected to touch down at 11:45 a.m. A welcome reception at Wilson Gym on North Fort Lewis will follow; Gov. Chris Gregoire and Maj. Gen. Timothy Lowenberg, the state’s adjutant general, will attend.

About 3,500 soldiers, including 2,400 from Washington, serve in the 81st Brigade. After mobilization, the unit trained at Fort McCoy, Wis., and Camp Buehring, Kuwait, before arriving in Iraq in October and November. The soldiers served throughout the country, mainly providing security for supply convoys and running daily operations on American military bases.

The rest of the brigade is expected to return over the next two weeks. The soldiers are returning from Fort McCoy, where they received health checkups and briefings on pay, benefits and transitioning back into civilian life.

The 81st lost one soldier on its deployment: Spc. Samuel D. Stone of Port Orchard was killed May 30 when his M1117 Armored Security Vehicle rolled during a convoy mission outside Tallil. The accident occurred less than two weeks before Stone's 21st birthday.