After six months spent in the Persian Gulf protecting two Iraqi oil terminals, sailors assigned to Mobile Security Squadron 7, Detachment 73 at Naval Base Guam were due home Saturday, according to a Navy news release.

The release didn’t say how many sailors were coming home and Navy officials on Guam could not be reached Friday.

The returning sailors also assisted in training the Iraqi military in Um Qasar, Iraq, and the British-run Naval Activity Transition Team.

While working and living on Iraq’s two off-shore oil terminals, Basra and Khwar Al Amaya, the sailors guarded the platforms day and night alongside Iraqi marine platoons.

The U.S. military eventually intends to turn over the defense of the terminals to the Iraqis.

MSS-7 was developed following the USS Cole bombing in Yemen and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Its mission is to provide diverse, expeditionary, point defense force protection to Defense Department high-value assets in the 5th, 6th and 7th fleet areas of responsibility, according to the Navy news release. The squadron can protect land, sea and air assets.

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