MOUND – Officers from the U.S. Army’s 20th Engineer Brigade fell from the sky – safely – into a field Sunday, preparing for redeployment to Iraq.

About 50 people watched the 16 reservists, ranging in rank from colonels to lieutenants, parachute from the Hercules transport plane about 8 miles west of Vicksburg. The exercise lasted about 15 minutes.

&#8220The brigade’s officers are visiting Vicksburg as part of a team-building exercise prior to the brigade’s upcoming second deployment to Iraq,” said Wayne Stroupe, spokesman for the Vicksburg-based 412th Engineer Command.

The 20th Brigade came here from Fort Bragg, N.C. Headquartered in Vicksburg, the 412th has members from Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Hawaii and New Mexico. It is one of two Engineer Command units in the United States.

Stroupe said the 20th was also scheduled, as part of its trip to Vicksburg, to visit the Engineer Research and Development Center &#8220to get briefings on the latest protection techniques for soldiers and other military engineering technologies.”

The reservists also planned to visit the Vicksburg National Military Park &#8220to gain insight on the military tactics of the Civil War,” Stroupe said.

The 20th, he said, will return to Iraq in July, more than two years after it was deployed to Camp Victory near Baghdad. According to the unit, the brigade had 6,100 members, composed of three brigade headquarters, seven battalions, six companies and nine detachments.

As soldiers in the 20th prepared to deploy, others from the 412th have been trickling home since April 26, when the first of 22 returned from a year-long tour in Iraq. The detachment left the 412th last April 15 to support the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Regional Division, headquartered in Baghdad’s Green Zone.

A welcoming ceremony for members of the 412th will be planned later.

The 412th provides command and control support to 5,000 reservists. The unit offers wartime support to the U.S. European Command and South Korea, and maintains three forward detachments in Germany, Hawaii and South Korea.