Nevada Guard gets call

More than 630 Nevada National Guard soldiers will leave in the spring for Afghanistan in what will be the largest overseas deployment of a group of citizen-soldiers from the state since World War II, the unit's commander said Tuesday.

"This is a very serious, complex and essentially a dangerous mission. They understood that when they signed up," said Lt. Col. Scott Cunningham, commander of Nevada's 1st Squadron, 221st Cavalry.

His comments came during a telephone interview in which he confirmed the deployment preparations on the eve of an announcement expected today by the State Military Office.

"We're trying to get over there with as many guys as we can," the 42-year-old tank commander said.

After training at camps in California and Indiana, he said, the cavalry troopers will mobilize and depart in April for locations in Afghanistan under a plan that has been in the works for months.

The troop surge coincides with President-elect Barack Obama's desire to focus the U.S. military effort on what he has called "the central front" in the war on terrorism.

The 1/221st Cavalry, which has most of its elements based in Las Vegas, is equipped with M3 Bradley fighting vehicles, which are maintained and operated by soldiers who represent "a huge cross section of the community," Cunningham said.

"That gives us a huge advantage over there," he said. "A lot of them bring individual skill sets such as pilots, police officers, lawyers, construction workers. ... We've got somebody in the unit who's an expert in just about anything."

The squadron includes 45 soldiers from Arizona, 45 from Guam and some from elsewhere in the United States. Many of them previously served with the unit and volunteered to rejoin it, Cunningham said.

"The soldiers are excited about it. It's an important mission," he said. "They're making sacrifices, leaving jobs, families and kids."

After arriving in Afghanistan, the squadron will be divided into about a dozen security force platoons of about 45 soldiers each to support reconstruction teams.

The remainder of the squadron, he said, will be assigned to a sector of Afghanistan somewhere between Kabul and the Pakistan border to provide security and stability operations for countering militant forces.

The deployment will be the fourth major mission for the 1/221st Cavalry since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The unit, an armored reconnaissance squadron attached to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Irwin, Calif., provided security at Nellis Air Force Base in 2003 and spent two years training other units at Fort Irwin from August 2004 through May 2006. About 100 soldiers served on an Iraq security mission that lasted from May 2006 through October 2007.

In December, the Nevada Army National Guard's 1864th Transportation Company was notified that more than 150 soldiers will be deployed to Iraq and Kuwait after a training stint in April.

There are 3,958 personnel in the Nevada military with 2,849 in the Army National Guard and 1,109 in the Air National Guard. About 200 Guard soldiers and airmen from Nevada are on active duty.

Roughly 10 soldiers from the 140th Military Police Detachment are expected to return in March from overseas, and a dozen Nevada soldiers embedded as trainers in Afghanistan are scheduled to return in September.

Another 50 medical evacuation soldiers from a battalion of the 168th General Support Aviation are serving in Afghanistan and are expected to be back in Nevada in October.

Also, 30 Nevada National Guard airmen from the 152nd Security Forces Squadron are expected to return in February from Kyrgyzstan, where they have been deployed since August.

Other Nevada Guard airmen are serving on domestic active-duty assignments in support of Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.