Lynchburg National Guard unit called to duty for Iraq

1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 116th Brigade Combat Team will leave for Iraq in January

By: Jarett Henshaw | WSLS
Published: November 06, 2009

6:00 p.m.

By Jarett Henshaw
WSLS Digital Journalist
jhenshaw@wsls.com

Members of the 116th Infantry Regiment of the Lynchburg National Guard are getting called into action for Iraq. Approximately 400 soldiers are getting ready for active duty to begin January 5th. The unit will train in Mississippi before joining a security force in southern Iraq.

We talked with one soldier who's being deployed for the first time. He says he just got married two months ago and it's going to be tough.

"It's going to be hard. Last year I was away from her for two months when I was training out in Oklahoma. And that was hard so I can't imagine how a year will be,” said Zack Crush.

Until the January deployment, soldiers will ready their weapons and prep intelligence equipment. The soldiers will be in the Middle East for 12 months.

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9:09 a.m.

By WSLS News Staff
news@wsls.com

About 400 members of a Virginia National Guard unit based in Lynchburg have been called to active duty for a security mission in Iraq.

The 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry Regiment, 116th Brigade Combat Team will leave for Iraq in January, and enter training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi before that.

“National Guard Bureau asked the Virginia Army National Guard to provide Soldiers for a critical fill in a security force mission in Iraq, and based on their level of training and readiness, we asked the leadership of 1st Battalion to assess their ability take on this important mission,” Maj. Gen. Robert. B. Newman, Jr., the Adjutant General of Virginia, said in a news release.

Back on October 8th, the Department of Defense announced that about 15,000 U.S. servicemen in four units would rotate into Iraq by Summer 2010 as part of "advisory and assistance brigades" for 12 month tours, according to the release from the Guard.

About 100 Guardsmen from the 1st Battalion helped fight wildfires in our area back in February of 2008, and 250 Guardsmen helped the Secret Service with security checkpoints during President Barack Obama's inauguration.

The Battalion's most recent call to duty happened between August 2006 to November 2007, when Guardsmen went to Kosovo.