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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.