COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- Fort Carson has welcomed home 270 soldiers who spent the last nine months serving in the Middle East.

The Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/12ak68T) the soldiers -- members of the base's 52nd Engineer Battalion -- reunited with their loved ones during a ceremony Friday.

Soldiers of the battalion's 497th Engineer Company split their time between Kuwait and Afghanistan, completing more than 40 projects, like the construction of containment berms at a fuel facility and waste-water retention ponds.

The battalion's 544th Engineer Company spent most of its time in Kuwait working on large-scale engineering projects.

Meanwhile, platoon-sized detachments from the battalion worked in Afghanistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on infrastructure projects and to improve bases.