By Gena Kittner

Janell Kellett of Sun Prairie was keeping a secret as she shopped for a new outfit this month, explaining to the saleswoman only that she needed something appropriate for a "political event in Washington, D.C."

Now, she's happy to tell anyone who asks -- she'll sit with first lady Michelle Obama at the State of the Union address on Wednesday.

"I'm so excited," Kellett said from the Dane County Regional Airport on Tuesday. "My husband just returned home from Baghdad. Two weeks ago he was in Iraq and now we're traveling to the White House."

Kellett, 39, whose husband, Maj. Michael Hanson, serves in the Wisconsin National Guard's 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, was chosen for her work as lead volunteer for the brigade's Family Readiness Group.

Lt. Col. Tim Donovan

BAGHDAD - It's been a long deployment for 3,200-plus soldiers of the Wisconsin National Guard's 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, but it is finally coming to an end.

Beginning Tuesday, the first of many chartered airliners will touch down at a Wisconsin airfield and Red Arrow soldiers will begin planting their boots back on the ground in their home state after completing their service in Iraq.