Another Nevada National Guard unit heads for overseas assignment
Gov. Brian Sandoval bid farewell Thursday to another Nevada National Guard unit on its way to a deployment in the Middle East.
About 120 of Nevada’s citizen-soldiers will conduct customs and border duties primarily in Kuwait.
Troops from the 485th Military Police Company attended the send-off ceremony at an Army aviation hangar at Reno Stead Airport, where Sandoval and Nevada’s adjutant general — Air Force Brig. Gen. Bill Burks — thanked them for the service and their families’ support.
Burks, in prepared remarks, noted that being “a National Guard soldier in today’s military is a difficult balancing act of family, (civilian) work and National Guard service.”
The deployment will bring to about 600 the number of Nevada National Guard troops serving overseas in support of U.S. efforts to curb terrorism. That’s nearly 20 percent of the Nevada Army National Guard’s 3,200 soldiers.
More than 180 soldiers from the Reno-based 422nd Expeditionary Signal Battalion are in Kuwait and Africa.
On Jan. 4, Sandoval sent more than 250 soldiers from the 17th Sustainment Brigade to coordinate supply operations for U.S. forces in the Middle East. It is the largest deployment by Nevada National Guard troops since 2010, when the 1st Squadron, 221st Cavalry, sent about 450 Nevada soldiers to Afghanistan with 280 Guard soldiers from other states.
Another 35 Nevada Army National Guard soldiers from the 137th Military Police Detachment mobilized Nov. 24 in North Las Vegas for a yearlong deployment in Afghanistan.
The 485th Military Police Company last deployed in July 2011 when 124 soldiers were sent to Bagram, Afghanistan, to provide security at the Parwan detention facility. During their tour, the soldiers helped secure a detainee population of more than 2,400 individuals.
The unit returned to Nevada in August 2012 with no serious injuries.
Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Find him on Twitter: @KeithRogers2
