Guard announces Iraq deployment

At a news conference formally announcing a tour of duty reported earlier this month, the National Guard said 723 soldiers from a St. Paul-based helicopter brigade will be coordinating support missions from western Iraq.

By MARK BRUNSWICK, Star Tribune

Last update: March 28, 2008 - 10:33 PM

The Minnesota National Guard officially announced Friday that 723 of its members will go to Iraq this summer for what is expected to be a yearlong deployment.

The soldiers, from the Guard's 34th Combat Aviation Brigade, will be stationed at the al Asad air base in Anbar Province in western Iraq and will be largely supporting U.S. Marines there. The brigade will leave for Fort Sill, Okla., for three months of training on May 31 before going to Iraq.

News of the deployment was initially reported earlier this month.

Soldiers in the brigade, which is based in St. Paul, command, direct, maintain and operate Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters. They will coordinate support missions such as transporting cargo and personnel, and medical evacuations.

Lt. Col. Clay Brock, commander of the brigade, said the group that is being replaced flew more than 80,000 hours while in Iraq. Officials expect that 60 percent of the flying will be at night.

"You have challenges from the bad guys and challenges from the environment, and we ourselves challenge ourselves," Brock said during a news conference in St. Paul.

At least 97 of the soldiers have been deployed previously in Iraq. For almost 75 percent of the group, this will be the first deployment overseas.

Some members of at least one Chinook unit returned from Iraq last August and have volunteered to return. But Larry Shellito, Guard adjutant general, acknowledged that the specialized demands of some duties may mean a quicker redeployment for some.

"The enemy has a vote in a lot of this. While we volunteer, we volunteer once, and that's to join," he said.

Blackhawk pilot Maj. Patricia Baker, who was deployed to Iraq from March 2003 through March 2004, said she volunteered to return. She will command a logistics group as well as be part of the flight rotation.

"It was time. I enjoyed my time as a combat aviator. We accomplished a lot. You rack up hundreds of hours of flight time and you fly the whole country. It's an extraordinary mission," Baker said.

Baker, an aviator for more than a decade, said the distinction of her being a military pilot and a woman has become less of a factor over the years.

"If I'm walking in my flight suit I might look a little unusual to the external observer. But when I have an aircraft filled with infantrymen and it's the middle of the night and it's a high-risk insertion, they don't care. When it's four in the morning and they have to cordon off a small village and search for that insurgent who has a basement filled with mortar rounds and rifles, that distinction just vanishes."

Mark Brunswick • 651-222-1636

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