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Jacksonville Guard unit to return from Iraq

Posted to The Birmingham News:

The Alabama Army National Guard says about 170 members of its 2025th Transportation Company from Jacksonville are coming home from Iraq after the unit’s second tour there.

The Guard says the unit was sent to Iraq the first time in March 2003. It was called to active duty again last May.

The Guard says the unit is scheduled to arrive at the Jacksonville armory Wednesday evening, and that the public is invited to attend ceremonies welcoming the troops home

Bama Guard unit deploys to Iraq; another heading out later this week

Posted to Breaking News at The Birmingham News:

About 50 members of the an Alabama Army National Guard unit that specializes in explosive ordnance disposal have deployed to Iraq and a transportation unit with about 170 soldiers is slated to arrive there shortly.

The 111th Ordnance Group from Opelika arrived down range last week. While in Iraq, the 111th will head up Combined Joint Task Force Troy, which coordinates and oversees efforts to counter improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, throughout the country. Task Force Troy will oversee 600 to 800 U.S. troops involved in anti-IED operations, and several dozen of those troops are soldiers with one of the 111th’s subordinate units, the 441st Ordnance Battalion out of Huntsville.

Meanwhile, state Guard public affairs officer, Lt. Col. Cynthia Bachus, said the 2101st Transportation Company out of Demopolis, Aliceville and Butler is now in Kuwait and will be moving into Iraq soon. The upcoming tour will be the second one for about a third of the unit’s soldiers. The first was in 2004-05.

This morning, the commander of an Alabama Guard military police unit said in an e-mail Sunday’s national elections went smoothly in his unit’s southern sector of Iraq.

“The Iraqi Security Forces did a great job executing the security plan that they established for the province,” said Lt. Col. Charles
Buxton, commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 203rd Military Police Battalion, now based in Basra Province.

Soldiers with the Athens-based 203rd have helped train Iraqi police and did pre-election assessments to improve security at 20 critical polling places throughout the province.

Through last December, according to the latest Pentagon figures, more than 4,700 Alabamians were deployed in and around Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bama Guard unit works to protect polling places as Iraq’s elections near

Printed in The Birmingham News:

As Iraq’s national elections draw near, soldiers with an Alabama Army National Guard unit are working to help protect polling places in their sector in the southern part of the country.

About 80 soldiers with the Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment of the 203rd Military Police Battalion are based in the southern city of Basrah. The unit commander, Lt. Col. Charles Buxton, said in an e-mail that battalion soldiers have done security assessments on “the 20 most critical polling sites in Basrah Province, as identified by the provincial director of police.”

“During these site assessments, we looked for structural issues and developed recommendations for force protection measures which were presented to the (director),” Buxton said. “During these site assessments, we transported members of the military working dog teams that will be used to conduct searches for explosives at the polling sites, prior to the start of the elections.”

Security at polling places and at government buildings is a concern for U.S. and Iraqi security forces as Sunday’s elections loom. Today, according to press reports, suicide bombers attacked two police stations and a hospital in the city Baqubah, north of Baghdad, and at least 31 people were killed.

In his e-mail, Buxton said 203rd soldiers had done “vulnerability assessments” of two buildings housing government offices, one of which is the Provincial Joint Coordination Center, a structure under the Ministry of Interior. As a result, Buxton said, two concrete barriers were being installed at the center this morning to thwart attacks “from a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device.”

Bama Guard explosive disposal unit to get final training before Iraq

Printed in The Birmingham News:

Several dozen Alabama Army National Guard soldiers will head out for Camp Shelby, Miss., this week to begin final training for a mission that involves disposing of unexploded bombs and shells in Iraq.

A send-off ceremony will be Wednesday in Huntsville for the 441st Ordnance Battalion (Explosive Ordnance Disposal). Sgt. 1st Class Terri Baker, the unit’s personnel noncommissioned officer, said the 441st will spend several weeks at Camp Shelby and will head to Iraq sometime in January.

“We render safe ordnance that is found,” Baker said. “IEDs, all that.”

In Iraq, the 441st will work under the Army’s 1st Armored Division and will have four active duty Army ordnance disposal companies under its command, Baker said.

More than 1,500 Alabama National Guard soldiers and airmen have been serving in and around Iraq and Afghanistan. About 270 Guard soldiers, with the 135th Expeditionary Sustainment Command from Birmingham, are now training at Fort Hood, Texas, for a deployment to Afghanistan.

Four Alabama soldiers recovering from rocket attack in Afghanistan

Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Courtesy of The Birmingham News:

Four members of an Alabama Army National Guard unit are recovering from wounds they suffered last week when two rockets landed in the base where they were working and exploded near them.

The soldiers are members of the 166th Engineer Company out of Winfield and Vernon, and they were doing some construction work at a forward operating base when they were wounded. The unit commander, Maj. Lee Thompson, said two of the wounded soldiers were flown to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and will receive “follow-on care” in the U.S.

“All injured will make full recoveries,” Thompson said in a unit newsletter. “I would characterize the circumstances as miraculous.”

“The morale of the company remains high, but I think most are a little more reserved now … a little more aware of the fact that the enemy can reach out and touch any of us,” Thompson said in an e-mail this morning. “I think we’re all just glad that all of our soldiers remain alive today.”

The wounded soldiers, all of whom suffered concussions, are Sgt. 1st Class Shane Sanderson, of Inver Groves Heights, Wisc., who was heading the team of 166th soldiers when the rockets landed; Sgt. Robert Smith of Arab, Spc. Michael Clackum of Hamilton and Spc. Kyle Thomas of Madison. A fifth soldier, Spc. Seth Leonhard of Bankston, “was untouched but witnessed the event,” Thompson said..

Thompson said Sanderson and Clackum were flown to Landstuhl, treated there, and have been flown back to the U.S.. Sanderson received shrapnel wounds to his legs while Clackum suffered shrapnel wounds in the back “which also caused some internal injuries,” Thompson said. Clackum “required multiple surgeries” before leaving for Landstuhl, “mainly due to the environment and challenges in preventing infection while in Afghanistan,” Thompson said.

Smith and Thomas, the other two wounded soldiers, are expected to rejoin the 166th at its Forward Operating Base, Sharana, in eastern Afghanistan in the near future. Both suffered shrapnel wounds, Thompson said.

Thompson said the five soldiers were doing some winterization work early in the morning at another forward operating base “when two enemy 107mm rockets exploded at their feet.

“The ‘kill radius’ of these weapons is 195 feet, and severe damage can be expected at distances up to 325 feet,” Thompson said. “Four of our five soldiers were standing within 10 feet of the detonation; one was within 100 feet.”

“They should all have been killed,” Thompson said.

Bama Guard unit leaving Birmingham for OK, then Afghanistan

Capt. Joseph Pyun, commander of the Alabama Army National Guard’s Company B, 1st Battalion, 169th Aviation Regiment, speaks to his soldiers Tuesday morning at Army Aviation Facility No. 2 at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. The occasion was a send-off ceremony for Birmingham-based Company B, which will spend the next two months training at Fort Sill, Okla., before heading to Afghanistan for a year-long mission. In Afghanistan, the unit will have a fleet of Chinook choppers to haul troops, supplies and heavy weapons, and will be supporting the Army’s Third Infantry Division.

Alabama loses another hero

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Captain Luce’s loved ones:

Yesterday, the Alabama Army National Guard confirmed the death of 27-year-old Captain Ron Luce. Luce was serving in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

The soldier was serving as Team Commander in Qole Gersdar, Afghanistan when his vehicle was struck by an Improvised Explosive Device. He was assigned to 1st Battalion 20th SFG in Huntsville, AL.

Two other soldiers were killed in the attack including Sergeant First Class Severin W. Summers 43 of Baton Rouge, LA and Sergeant First Class Alejandro Grenado 42, of Tatum, TX.

Funeral Services were held for Luce at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Chapel on Fort Bragg, NC Thursday.

Bama Army Guard unit receives Army honor for service in Iraq

Posted yesterday to The Birmingham News breaking news blog:

The Alabama Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 131st Aviation Regiment, which served in Iraq from September 2006 to 2007, has received the Army’s Meritorious Unit Commendation for its “exceptional service” in Iraq, according to a National Guard press release.

“This is a great award for many reasons,” stated Maj. Gen. A. C. Blalock, adjutant general of the Alabama National Guard. “It recognizes the success of an Alabama National Guard organization in combat.”

The battalion is one of three Alabama National Guard units “that have won distinctive unit awards” while deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, according to the news release. The 1165th MP Company in Fairhope and Brewton, which was in Iraq from 2003-2004 and lost one of its soldiers in combat, won the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest unit award presented. Company A, 115th Signal Battalion from Florence, won the Meritorious Unit Commendation for its Iraqi service in 2004-2005.

The Meritorious Unit Commendation is given to units for their “outstanding performance, hard work and commitment while carrying out operations against an armed enemy for a period of at least six months.”

The honored units in the 1st Battalion are based at Montgomery Regional Airport and Bates Field in Mobile and currently fly the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.

Great job guys!

Bama Guard unit begins final training for mission to Iraq

Printed today in The Birmingham News:

About 80 members of a Centreville-based Alabama Army National Guard unit will begin final training next week at Fort Lewis, Wash., for a mission in Iraq.

According to a state Guard press release, the 129th Medical Company will “provide health protection and ground evacuation to coalition forces” in Iraq.

A send-off ceremony for the unit will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at Fort I. Judson Sneed Armory in Centreville and the company will leave for Fort Lewis the next day.

Another Iraq-bound Army Guard unit, the 203rd Military Police Battalion from Gadsden, will be sending about 75 soldiers for some final pre-deployment training to Fort Bliss, Texas, following a send-off ceremony June 19.

Alabama Army Guard unit to train Iraqi police

Courtesy of The Birmingham News:

One of the next Alabama Army National Guard units to mobilize for duty in Iraq will have a mission of training Iraqi police officers. More than 75 members of the Athens-based 203rd Military Police Battalion will have a send-off ceremony on June 19 and then do additional training at Fort Bliss, Texas, before an August deployment to Iraq.

The 203rd originally was assigned a mission of guarding prisoners in Iraq, a mission that would have required about 150 of its soldiers. But that mission was changed to police training in late April. Lt. Col. Charles Buxton, the unit commander, said the change means the battalion will be taking fewer soldiers to Iraq.

Hundreds of Alabama Guard soldiers are now in and around Iraq and Afghanistan and hundreds more are getting ready to go. Several more Guard units with missions in the war on terror are expected to leave for pre-deployment training this month.

A team of state Army Guard members recently returned from Afghanistan, where the team’s mission was training members of the Afghan National Army. Another team is finishing up its pre-deployment training at Fort Riley, Kansas.