With more than 200 more soldiers called up to active duty this weekend, they’ll soon be on the way to “mobilization stations,” regional bases where they get final processing and preparation for their active duty assignment. In the case of units like the 2133 Transportation company, the soldiers will take all their individual and unit equipment and vehicles, and the National Guard’s Colonel Robert King says Iowans may see them “on the road.” They will, as he explains when soldiers leave they take their trucks, weapons, equipment and clothes — King tells of being at the armory in Jefferson and says it’s pretty bare, because everything the soldiers had “went up the road with them. ” Drivers with a sense of history may want to point out to the kids that they’re sharing the highway with soldiers who may be involved in the country’s next military action.King says motorists on the route of a unit going to their mobilization station will likely find that convoy on the road, headed off to active duty. Drivers would do well to remember their manners when they share the road with the guard and reserve troops who’ve been called up and are heading out. King says the soldiers are well-trained and know how to run their equipment, but “things will happen” and folks on the road should know the troops might be out and take that into account in their driving. Both a medic company from Iowa City and the the Transportation company out of Centerville and Muscatine will be heading to their mobilization station in Fort McCoy, Wisconsin.
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