About 170 soldiers with the First Battalion of the 172nd Field Artillery of the New Hampshire Army National Guard are scheduled to return home this week, and various state agencies are getting ready to help ease the soldiers' transition back into civilian life.

After a brief welcoming ceremony at the National Guard Armory in Manchester on Wednesday, soldiers will have a day off before participating in the three-day transition process that includes counseling, benefit enrollment, and medical and dental assessments. Soldiers will also attend classes on stress related combat issues and strategies for returning to family life and the workplace. Before returning to the state, soldiers went through processing at Fort Dix, N.J., to allow them time to decompress and reconnect with each other, according to Lt. Col. Deborah Carter, Human Resource Officer for the N.H. National Guard.

The staggered return process is an attempted to recreate the "slow boat home" transition that WWII veterans experienced, "unlike the less effective method of Vietnam where individual soldiers returned by plane, alone in many cases," Carter said.

"New Hampshire is not inventing anything new, but is stealing from organizations with long learning curves on multiple combat and reentry situations like the 82nd Airborne, Marines and Navy. They've learned some things that we would be foolish not to acknowledge and address," said Brig. Gen. Kenneth Clark, Adjutant General of the New Hampshire Guard.

The state is also contributing efforts to the transition program. Various state agencies will offer a range of services for the "Operation Welcome Home" program. Agencies involved in the effort include the Departments of Health and Human Services, Safety, Labor, Education and Corrections.

"We know that they will face challenges in re-adjusting. As a state government, and as citizens, we should be there to help make the transition as smooth as possible for our National Guard members and their families," Gov. John Lynch said in a statement.

The agencies will assist returning soldiers in a variety of ways, from helping soldiers find housing and jobs to providing counseling to soldiers and their families.

Members of the unit, which is based in Manchester with armories in Portsmouth, Rochester, Nashua and Milford, spent almost a year in Iraq, acting as military police officers and training local police forces. A total of 850 soldiers are expected to return to the state from Iraq and Afghanistan during the next few months.