FORT DRUM, NY — Vice President Joe Biden welcomed home the oft-deployed 10th Mountain Division soldiers from Iraq yesterday, praising them for helping turn over security of their sector to Iraqi forces.

“You’ve shouldered it and you have done it better than anyone in history,” Biden said to about 2,600 soldiers and relatives in a hangar at this upstate base. The troops are part of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, which has been to Afghanistan twice and Iraq three times.