(Birdsboro) -- A Pennsylvania National Guard company that lost three soldiers earlier this year in Afghanistan has returned to central Pennsylvania. Members of the 131st Transportation Company have made their way home after a ten-and-a-half-month-long deployment. Company commander Captain Dana Howett of Birdsboro, Berks County says troops have mixed feelings about coming home. "We're coming home three brothers less, and it's very, very emotionally stressful," she says. "You want to be thankful that you made it, but at the same time, you're saddened and sorrowful that there are three soldiers who didn't." Forty-seven-year-old Sergeant Edward Koehler of Lebanon, 49-year-old Sergeant Brian Mowery of Halifax, Dauphin County and 30-year-old Staff Sergeant Kenneth VanGiesen of Kane, McKean County lost their lives this past July when an improvised exploding device detonated near their convoy. Howett, whose husband also serves in the Pennsylvania National Guard, says it's important to help soldiers readjust to life outside the military within the coming months. She adds the troops won't return to their civilian jobs until after the holiday.