Approximately 60 Soldiers from the Iowa National Guard will be welcomed home Saturday in a ceremony at the Des Moines air base.
Iowa Guard spokesman, Colonel Greg Hapgood says, “The 185th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion from the Iowa Army National Guard is based at Camp Dodge. And they’ve been mobilized for the past year. They’ve spent approximately nine months in the Afghanistan theater operating out of Bagram Airfield and some other locations in Afghanistan.”
He says the soldiers specialize in command and control of units and support the coalition and U.S. forces through transportation, maintenance, supplies, water purification and other logistical tasks. Hapgood says their work is key to the entire mission.
“Certainly when you are talking about operations like we have in Afghanistan, its incredibly important that you have logistics on time, you have what you need, when you need it and where you need it. And these soldiers do an excellent job at making sure those who are in combat directly have everything they need to do their job,” Hapgood says.
The public is welcome to attend the homecoming ceremony which will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday.