Published: July 07, 2009 01:08 pm      

Guard unit preparing to deploy

The Mountain Warriors will be going north, spending the next two weeks at Fort Indiantown Gap, Penn. as part of the unit’s annual two-week deployment.

David Altom, spokesman for the Kentucky National Guard, said about 1,500 members of the 1st Battalion 149th Infantry, including 125 from the 1149th Forward Support Company in London, will leave Wednesday.

“It is a practice field deployment,” Altom said. “As a forward support company, the 1149th’s job is to take care of the other soldiers in the battalion by providing the cooks, mechanics, supplies and security.”

Altom said the 1,500 soldiers are about half of the battalion’s compliment.

“The other soldiers have already done their deployment,” Altom said. “They were sent to Japan earlier this year.”

Those soldiers will be available for deployment should the National Guard be required to respond to an emergency.

Altom said the annual deployment is an opportunity to give the soldiers experience while incorporating new soldiers into their respective units as they perform a variety of missions around the 18,000-acre facility.

The Mountain Warriors will also have the opportunity to work with other Kentucky National Guard units including the 198th Military Police Company, 206th Engineer Battalion and the 75th Troop Command.

“There will be units from other states as well,” Altom said. “An aviation support unit from another state will provide the helicopter transport while they are in Pennsylvania.

Staff writer Dean Manning may be reached at dmanning@sentinel-echo.com.