Minn. guardsmen to be deployed again in 2011

[unhappycamper]

Minn. guardsmen to be deployed again in 2011
The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday May 20, 2010 21:06:08 EDT

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — About 2,700 Minnesota National Guard soldiers were alerted Thursday to prepare for deployment to Iraq and Kuwait next year.

The Bloomington-based 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, also known as the Red Bulls, will help provide security to other forces when they head overseas in summer 2011. A spokesman, Maj. Paul Rickert, said members will most likely find out early next year who specifically will be deployed.

The brigade has already gone through the longest combat tour of any military unit in Iraq, when 4,000 members — 2,600 of them from Minnesota — were sent to Iraq. The deployment was extended to support the U.S. military’s troop surge, and it ended in August 2007.

Many of the soldiers on that deployment were already on second or third tours. Rickert himself was told he may have to return next year, after 13 months in Iraq as part of the 2005-07 tour.

“It’s become part of what our family does,” said Rickert, the father of a 10-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter. “And I don’t think I’m unique in that. It’s a challenge and a struggle.”



unhappycamper comment: We really should rename the organization the 'International Guard'. 'National Guard' implies that their service is national, which it's not unless you accept the fact the Guard is being used to keep the occupations going.