KPLU Local News
(2009-11-25)
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SEATTLE, WA
(KPLU) -
On Friday, you might be wondering whether to go shopping or honor buy-nothing day at the same time, friends and family of some national guardsmen will be bidding them farewell. They're one of many Guard units that are being deployed overseas this year in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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The 144th Army Liason team is 25 citizen soldiers. They're based in Yakima, but the members come from all over the state. Their mission in Iraq will be augmenting staff for the multinational force based in Baghdad; some will also serve on security detail for high-level officials. Public affairs officer Keith Kosik says between the stateside natural disasters that are their bread and butter and the dual overseas missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, it's been busy times for the Washington National Guard.
"Since 9-11, more than 11,000 national guardsmen have served in support of just operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. All the while, we've also supported the Hurricane Katrina relief mission, the southwest border mission, we've contributed to the California wildfire mission and we've served our state mission here."
Currently, he says there are about 500 national guardsmen and women deployed overseas - of a total force of about 8500.
They include everything from convoy drivers to engineers in Iraq.
A Centralia based unit is training in Wisconsin now for deployment to Afghanistan over the next couple of months.
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