A group of Iowa National Guard soldiers are leaving Saturday to prepare for deployment overseas. Guard spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Greg Hapgood, say the soldiers are based at Camp Dodge in Johnston.
He says approximately 75 members of the 294th Area Support Medical Company will be sent off from Camp Dodge to Fort Lewis, Washington for several weeks of training before being sent to Iraq.
Hapgood says this unit provideS a variety of medical services to soldiers and to civilians who may need them. Hapgood says this is the first deployment for the unit, but not for many of the soldiers.
Hapgood says the unit is fairly new and hasn’t been deployed before, but he says the unit was originally part of an Iowa City medical unit and has members that had been deployed in the past. A community sendoff ceremony is planned for six p-m Saturday at the Camp Dodge Freedom Center in Johnston.