Guard unit that includes Nevadans heading to Iraq

Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2004 | 9:47 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

More soldiers from Nevada are set to head to Iraq.

Nearly 500 members of a Utah National Guard unit, including 11 from the Las Vegas Valley and nine others from other Southern Nevada cities, will be sent to Iraq next month, officials said.

Fifty officers of the Guard's 222nd Field Artillery Battalion will leave for Camp Shelby, Miss., on Jan. 4 to prepare for the arrival of the entire battalion, due to report Jan. 24, officials said.

The battalion members will be on active duty for 18 months, six months of training stateside followed by a year of duty in Iraq.

Lt. Col. Richard Miller said members of the battalion, known informally as the Triple Deuce, will receive four to five months of training and validation at the Mississippi camp.

They then will be shipped to Fort Irwin, near Barstow, Calif., in the Mojave Desert for 30 days of acclimation and final training before being shipped to Iraq for combat early next summer. While at Fort Irwin the troops will likely be trained by the Las Vegas-based 221st Cavalry Squadron.

The 221st was deployed to Fort Irwin in August for a scheduled 18-month stay to serve as a training unit for soldiers heading to the Middle East.

The 222nd's mission is classified, but Miller said the unit will fulfill a field artillery and rifle infantry role.

"They've finally made some decisions on us going," Miller said. "It gives direction, clarification, a purpose we're going for.Nobody wants to leave their families and their situations at home. This will be a challenge for families, the community and employers. But, the purpose is to support the president and the people of Iraq.

"I think we're going over to do some good and provide some of the freedoms we, as Americans, enjoy."

The next wave of deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq in connection with Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom also will include Northern Nevadans.

About 60 Reno-area soldiers with 113th Aviation Company D are scheduled to be deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in the Afghanistan region in early January.

The unit flies Chinook helicopters and is expected to be called on to move soldiers and supplies in the region, Nevada National Guard officials said.

The unit is part of a group of resources identified by the Department of Defense for deployment to the Middle East between 2005 and 2006. The Reno-based soldiers will join other Nevada units currently serving in the region.

Forty-four members of the Las Vegas-based Army Reserve's 313th Military Police unit deployed to Iraq this month on an 18-month deployment. Last summer the Henderson-based Nevada Army Guard's 1864th Transportation Co. sent about 160 citizen-soldiers to Iraq to truck supplies and equipment across the desert during an 18-month deployment.

No other Nevada-based units have been identified for deployments in 2005 or 2006 at this point by the Pentagon.