La. National Guard Training Center Pineville hosts ribbon cutting for new readiness center

Photo By Staff Sgt. Noshoba Davis | Maj. Gen. Keith Waddell, the adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard, Col. Scott Slaven, the construction facilities management officer, Command Sgt. Maj. Clifford Ockman, the LANG’s senior enlisted leader, and key LANG, State, and local leaders pose with scissors during a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of the Training Center Pineville Readiness Center in Pineville, Louisiana, on December 8, 2023. The readiness center will house the 2228th Military Police Company, 773rd Military Police Battalion, 139th Regional Support Group, and B Company, 3rd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment, 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, after their armories sustained damage from an EF2 tornado in 2018.  

PINEVILLE, LA, UNITED STATES

12.12.2023

Story by Sgt. 1st Class Scott Longstreet 

Louisiana National Guard

PINEVILLE, La. — Maj. Gen. Keith Waddell, the adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard, Louisiana National Guard leadership and local community leaders assembled for an official ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of LANG’s new readiness center at Louisiana National Guard Training Center Pineville in Pineville, Louisiana, on December 8, 2023.

“Events like this do not happen very often,” said Waddell. “This is an exciting and momentous occasion to open this new facility, and these Soldiers deserve it.”

The TCP Readiness Center will house Soldiers from the 2228th Military Police Company, 773rd Military Police Battalion, 139th Regional Support Group, and B Company, 3rd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment, 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, after their armories sustained damage from an EF2 tornado in 2018.

“After being displaced since the tornadoes,” Waddell continued. “This facility will allow these great men and women to place their guidons and be proud of where they train.”

Construction for the new facility began in November 2021. The facility is approximately 50,000 square feet and cost more than 20 million dollars.

“We have to make sure our National Guard men and women are well prepared and well trained with good quality equipment and facilities,” said Ed Larvadain III, Louisiana State Representative, District 26. “This is important because LANG runs toward danger while others run away from danger. This readiness center allows them to respond to any state emergency from wildfires to COVID.”

The new facility will provide separate offices, storage spaces and vaults for each unit with main spaces shared by the units including the drill hall, kitchen, locker rooms and classrooms for the resident units.

“The strength of our organization is its people,” Waddell concluded. “I can only imagine the pride the Soldiers of the 228th and Bravo Company, 3-156 will have coming to train and work here each day.”

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• Date Taken: 12.12.2023
• Date Posted: 01.04.2024 12:20
• Story ID: 461258
• Location: PINEVILLE, LA, US