Iowa’s military presence in the conflict in the Middle East will be nearly cut in half, when some 700 soldiers return from duty in Afghanistan. Lieutenant Colonel Greg Hapgood says Task Force 168 is composed of many troops from western and southwest Iowa but also soldiers with special skills pulled in from all over the state. He says there’ll still be about 800 soldiers in the Middle East, one of the smallest contingents the state has had in awhile. Hapgood says the soldiers deployed to the region of military action are assigned depending on what’s going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. He says the units chosen to be called to active duty depend on what the needs are in the “theaters,” and adds that virtually every unit in Iowa’s spent some time deployed in the war on terror somewhere in the world, or around the country. Hapgood says it doesn’t look like Iowa’s role in the conflict will change any time soon. While a unit may specialize in a set of tasks, Hapgood says overall the state’s National Guard units offer great diversity of skills and training. There are a great number of units in Iowa, he says, with “just a huge variety of different skills, and that’s why Iowa’s been such in demand.” That’s why many of our soldiers are called upon, to put together a thorough team and make sure they can handle missions. Hapgood says Task force 168 is based on an infantry battalion, the First Battalion 168th Infantry — but they’ve added specialized soldiers including engineers, medics, people with expertise in supplies, all to “work a mission that has to do with protecting a number of different rebuilding entities over in Afghanistan.”
