My friends, 2LT Thomas Harding and SPC Alexander Newman, and most of the rest of the Oregon Army National Guards's 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, completed their final mobilization training Thursday at Fort Stewart, Ga., and are preparing to ship out to Iraq shortly.
For those who have friends or family in the Oregon National Guard, this would be a good time to call them up to say your goodbyes if you haven't already.
Oregon Military Department:
The Brigade's deployment to Iraq will be the largest war-time deployment of the Oregon National Guard since World War II. It will be three times larger that the Brigade's recent deployment to Afghanistan in 2006-2007 and will involve the entire Brigade of 3,400 Soldiers and will affect every community in the state.
To those about to deploy: Good hunting and godspeed.
1 comment:
There was some comment on Facebook about my use of the term "Good hunting and godspeed". I replied that is a traditional send off heralding from the old style navies. It has eventually expanded to be applied to all branches of the military.
In any case, the phrase certainly applies to our current mode of combat operations. While the 41st will principally be tasked with convoy security, the means of doing so is effectively by searching out and destroying insurgents.
As for whether it is good or not: Regardless of the context of our entry into the war, I am quite comfortable with hunting down the likes of those responsible for the Taza bombing in Kirkuk two weeks ago, which killed or wounded over 300 Shia civilians and destroyed 30 homes and damaged a mosque. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_June_2009_Taza_bombing... Read More
This is their job, and I wish them luck in doing it.
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