Photo By Capt. Christian Venhuizen | Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead shakes the hand of Chief Warrant Officer 2 Anthony Finch, of...... read more read more
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Members of the community, family and friends gathered at the Joint Forces Readiness Center auditorium, in Cheyenne, to say farewell to the 31 soldiers who will deploy Jan. 13 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
In his address to the soldiers and families, Wyo. Gov. Matt Mead said “I have a young son, and I want you to know that you in the military are still viewed as heroes by many of our young people. They look up to you…And I want you to know, that as much as the young children, it is all of us that look up to you.”
The mobilization order for C Company, 5th Battalion, 159th General Support Aviation Regiment, or Charlie Med, as the unit refers to itself, is for a 12-month deployment, including two months of predeployment training at Fort Hood, Texas, and 10 months in Afghanistan. This is the third of three annual rotations for C Company.
“I am excited about this mission,” Maj. Dane Rodgers, deployment commander said. “There is satisfaction in knowing that you are there to help people, and you are probably going to save some lives because of the rapid response and being good at your job.”
The unit will deploy with three UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and elements from F Company, 1st Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment, located in Rhode Island and Delaware.
“The mission that we have is to provide air medical evacuation support, so we will have crews on a ready status that will be first up. And those first up crews will have a 15-minute timeframe to move from whatever they are doing to launching the helicopter and being in route to the site where we need to pick up the patient,” Rodgers said.
The 31 soldiers mobilized for this rotation will be on federal active duty orders for 400 days. The period of active duty can be extended, based on the U.S. Army’s requirements.
The soldiers are from the Wyoming communities of Cheyenne, Casper, Glenrock, Green River, and Laramie; the Colorado communities of Clifton, Golden, and Windsor; the Nebraska communities of McCook and North Platte; and Manhattan, Kan.
Charlie Med is the most deployed unit in the Wyoming Army National Guard. Since 2000, the unit has mobilized for Operation Noble Eagle, Operation Iraqi Freedom; Operation Enduring Freedom and the United Nations’ mission in Bosnia. The unit has also been activated for firefighting missions, search and rescue missions and other emergencies in Wyoming and around the world.
| Date Taken: | 01.11.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 01.11.2011 20:05 |
| Story ID: | 63386 |
| Location: | CHEYENNE, WY, US |
| Web Views: | 389 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Wyoming Army National Guard Charlie Med Soldiers deploy, by LTC Samuel House, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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