Minnesota Guard division in final drills for Iraq duty

Last update: January 9, 2009 - 11:29 PM

Members of the Minnesota National Guard's 34th Red Bull Infantry Division will conduct final drills this weekend before heading to Iraq early this year.

The drills involve 500 soldiers and will be conducted Saturday morning at the Rosemount National Guard Armory.

More than 1,000 men and women from the division will be deployed starting in February to support Iraqi security forces in eight of the country's 18 provinces. The mission is scheduled to last for a year. The first couple of months of the deployment involves training at Fort Lewis in Washington State.

"This mission is different," said Maj. Gen. Larry Shellito, adjutant general of the Minnesota National Guard. "This deployment is clearly not our largest -- we have sent more Minnesota soldiers and airmen at once to Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq in the past -- but the scope of this mission is unprecedented for the modern Minnesota National Guard."

Also Saturday, a dinner and dance will be held at the St. Croix National Golf and Event Center in Somerset, Wis., to honor 275 of the soldiers and their families. Those 275 are Stillwater-based military police who are part of the deployment.

PAUL WALSH

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