National Guard deployment is largest since WWII

08/16/2005

National Guard deployment is largest since WWII
Mark Brunswick,
Star Tribune
August 16, 2005

Approximately 2,600 Minnesota National Guard members will be mobilized and deployed to Iraq and other countries in the region next year in what is expected to be one of the largest overseas deployments of state Guard personnel in 60 years.

The deployment will include six months of training and a 12-month “boots on the ground” assignment. Most are likely to be deployed in Iraq, although the mobilization order does not specify a country, said Gen. Larry Shellito, adjutant general of the Minnesota Guard.

The troops will come from the Minneapolis-based 34th Infantry Division 1st Brigade Combat Team. Shellito said that it is not yet clear what assignment the troops will have, but that they will be training for combat situations currently facing the military in Iraq.

Soldiers in units in the 1st Brigade come from more than 33 Minnesota communities, and the deployment will likely have the largest impact yet on the state’s 12,800 troops in the Minnesota Guard. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, almost 8,000 Guard members have served on active duty. There are about 950 Minnesota Guard members in Iraq now.

Units of the 1st Brigade train in Alexandria, Anoka, Bemidji, Brooklyn Park, Cottage Grove, Crookston, Detroit Lakes, Duluth, Fairmont, Faribault, Fergus Falls, Hastings, Hutchinson, Inver Grove Heights, Jackson, Little Falls, Long Prairie, Luverne, Minneapolis, Moorhead, New Ulm, Owatonna, Pine City, Pipestone, Rosemount, Sauk Center, St. James, St. Paul, St. Peter, Stillwater, Thief River Falls, West St. Paul and Winona.

About 1,500 Guard members from four other states also will be involved in the deployment.

“We’ve all heard the phrase that freedom isn’t free. It’s also true that not everybody pays the same price,” said Gov. Tim Pawlenty, in announcing the deployment.

Through the next several weeks, soldiers will be sent to Camp Shelby, Miss., to undergo what is called immersion training that will simulate combat operations conducted by the military in Iraq. The brigade will then move to Fort Polk, La., for further training before being deployed in southwest Asia.

Rumors of a probable large-scale Guard deployment began circulating several months ago. On Monday, Guard officials received official orders for the mobilization. The deployment comes at a time when a number of the nation’s governors have raised questions about the large number of Guard units being deployed, concerned that extended leaves will affect services provided by the Guard at state levels such as assisting in fighting forest fires or when flooding occurs. About 40 percent of those serving in the military in the Iraq war are either from the Guard or armed forces Reserves.

Pawlenty said he was confident that the numbers involved in the deployment would not deplete state Guard numbers, but said he was concerned about how often Guard members would be deployed.

“We don’t want to call on them so frequently or so often that we burn them out or the spirit of the citizen soldier is eroded,” Pawlenty said.