David's Deployment

On February 10th over 1,000 members of the 34th Red Bull Infantry of the Minnesota National Guard will deploy for service in Iraq - and my little brother will be one of them.

This is only the second time in the history of the National Guard (since WWII) that a division sized unit has been deployed. Their mission is broader than any past deployment, as they will lead US operations in the southern 1/3 of Iraq - in 8 out of 18 provinces - and will partner with more than 40,000 Iraqi forces. They will be offering both civil and military skills to help rebuild Iraq's infrastructure and help move the country toward independence and government stability.

The Red Bulls will provide leadership, command, logistics, and communication support for four active-duty brigades of more than 16,000 multinational coalition forces (including US Army brigades, a National Guard aviation brigade from North Carolina, and troops from El Salvador, Lithuania, Romania and Kazakhstan). According to Lt. Col. Kevin Olson, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Guard, only eight National Guard divisions in the nation are large enough to support such a command.

The 1,037-soldier Minnesota Brigade is composed of soldiers from 273 Minnesota cities. Fifty-seven are from St. Paul; 35 are from Minneapolis. Among the troops are:

• 425 from the Rosemount-based division's headquarters
• 350 from the Inver Grove Heights-based special troops battalion (this is David)
• 50 special troops battalion soldiers stationed in Faribault
• 43 from the Rosemount-based division band
• 169 from the Stillwater-based military police company

They will be headquartered at Camp Victory, outside Baghdad, and are expected to arrive in Iraq in April after training for two months at Fort Lewis, Washington. They are expected to return home April 2010.

On Saturday, we had a going-away party for David. We had a great turn out, with nearly 40 of David's family and friends there. Thank you to everyone who took the time to come out and support him. I will try to use this blog to keep everyone updated on David's status. In the mean time, please keep David and our family in your prayers as we/he prepares to leave.


Here we are with David at Fort Jackson, SC for his graduation from Basic Training in October 2005, before he went on to Georgia for Advanced Individual Training in communications.