Local guardsmen leave for war

History will be made Monday when the first deployment ever held for members of the Mountain Home Idaho National Guard armory begins.

The local guardsmen will muster Monday morning at Gowen Field in Boise to begin an 18-month tour of federal service that will see them spend a year in Iraq.

The local armory was created in 1990 and Detachment 1, Company B, of the 116th Cavalry's 145th Support Battalion was assigned to the facility.

Last month the members of that unit were notified, along with other ING units, that Monday they would be "federalized" and placed on active duty status. Last week, all remaining members of the ING's 116th Cavalry were alerted that they would be called to active duty. The executive officer of the 116th is Bob Lytle of Mountain Home.

Over the last few weeks the local guardsmen have been loading their equipment, which they will take with them to Iraq, on trains at the loading facilities at Mountain Home AFB.

Monday, the local armory detachment personnel will muster at Gowen Field where they will link up with the rest of the units heading to Iraq in the first wave of deployments by the Idaho Guard. They will have to stay overnight at Gowen Field on June 9, and they ship out on June 10 to Fort Bliss, Texas, for additional training before being sent, some time this fall, to the war zone in Iraq, where they are expected to serve a tour of about one year.

In recent weeks the local guardsmen and their families have met for a series of meetings at the home of Geoff Schroeder, the local Guard recruiter, to prepare them for the deployment.

Schroeder noted that in addition to the family support services provided by the Guard, as active-duty personnel the guardsmen and their families also now have full access to the support services available at Mountain Home AFB. Call the family support center on base for more information.

The guardsmen from Mountain Home who will be deploying were honored last week by the mayor and city council, during one of the gatherings at Schroeder's home. No other community events are planned.

Approximately 25-30 Elmore County residents belong to the local Guard unit.