FORT DRUM, N.Y., July 28 (UPI) -- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told troops returning from Iraq Wednesday, "America's combat mission in Iraq will end" in a month.

Biden spoke to returning elements of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team at Fort Drum, N.Y., home of the U.S. Army's 10th Mountain Division. The administration plans to end combat operations in Iraq this summer and withdraw most troops by the end of 2011.

Biden noted the division's long history of service, including Italy in World War II. "The unforgiving battlefields where you've fought and bled -- from the Afghan Hindu Kush to Iraq's Triangle of Death -- are as much a part of division lore as Riva Ridge and the Po River Valley," he said.

"More than seven years ago, our military was given a mission in Iraq as complex and challenging as any it has ever attempted," he said in prepared remarks. "A war zone with no safe havens and no front lines. An invisible threat from explosives that turned highways into death traps. And an enemy that used suicide as a devastating weapon, requiring split-second decisions that could save soldiers' lives or cause the death of innocents.

"More than 1 million American service members have deployed in support of that effort," the vice president added. "You and your colleagues persevered and succeeded. With your help, Iraq's leaders and security forces persevered and succeeded. And therefore those who sought to make chaos and destruction a hallmark of the new Iraq have failed.

"I've been looking forward to this day for a long time," Biden said. "One month from now, as President Obama pledged, America's combat mission in Iraq will end."