NEWS: Community to bid farewell to deploying Wisconsin National Guard Soldiers
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NEWS: Community to bid farewell to deploying Wisconsin National Guard Soldiers
Date: August 24, 2012
Nearly 150 Wisconsin Army National Guard Soldiers are closer to deploying overseas in support of Operation Enduring Freedom following about four weeks of pre-mobilization training at Fort McCoy.
The Soldiers - who hail from the Platteville and Prairie Du Chien-based 229th Engineer Company and Tomah-based 106th Quarry Detachment - will depart for Fort Bliss, Texas, this weekend for about 45 days of mobilization training before deploying to Afghanistan's Kandahar Province where they will perform engineer construction missions.
The training at Fort McCoy allowed the units to refine their Army Warrior Skills and battle drill missions. The unit reacted to improvised explosive device contact, small-arms contact and indirect fire, and evacuated casualties while accomplishing its engineer missions.
The training at Fort McCoy also included recovering vehicles, changing gunners in vehicles, and conducting road-reconnaissance missions. The unit's overall mission, however, is to make roads more passable by making improvements to intersections.
The 229th is a subordinate unit of the 724th Engineer Battalion, 157th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade and most recently deployed in 2003. Approximately 165 soldiers spent 14 months at Camp Speicher, Iraq, where they provided engineer support to coalition forces and also helped rebuild Iraqi infrastructure, including runway construction, built traffic control points and forward operating bases, maintained main supply routes, and provided force protection and project oversight for Iraqi-contracted building projects.
The 106th Quarry Detachment, also a subordinate unit of the 724th Engineer Battalion, last mobilized in 2003. The then Ashland-based unit prepared to deploy overseas to operate their rock crushing machine at quarry sites where they would make gravel for road construction. Their mission however, changed while at mobilization station when the Army ordered them to Fort Lewis, Wash., where they supported the Army's Reserve Officer Training Corps advanced camp, which is the final step before the Army's ROTC cadets from around the country receive their commissions as second lieutenants.
Many of the deploying Guardsmen are among the more than 13,000 Wisconsin National Guard Soldiers and Airmen who have deployed in support of the global war on terrorism since September 11, 2001, many more than once.
The Prairie du Chien community will join Wisconsin leaders, families and friends in honoring the Afghanistan-bound Soldiers during a sendoff ceremony Saturday [Aug. 25], 1 p.m., at the Prairie Du Chien High School, 800 East Crawford Street, Prairie Du Chien, Wis.
Festivities will begin at approximately noon when local police, firefighters and members of the Patriot Guard will escort the Soldiers from the Prairie Du Chien armory to the local high school for the formal send-off.
Fort McCoy Public Affairs contributed to this report.
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