The Oregon Army National Guard honored Citizen-Soldiers in a mobilization ceremony, Sept. 29, 2017, at the Anderson Readiness Center, in Salem, Oregon.
A platoon of more than 20 Citizen-Soldiers with Detachment 3, G Company (Golf), 1st Battalion, 189th Aviation Regiment, are scheduled to deploy to the Middle East to assist with aerial medical evacuation support. The platoon will be joining their parent unit, the South Dakota Army National Guard's Company C, 1st Battalion, 189th Aviation Regiment, in the Middle East and will be deployed for approximately one year.
These Soldiers are largely from the Willamette Valley area (Salem and Portland) and will be led by 1st Lt. Lindsay Whitcomb. Two thirds of Golf Company, 1-189th Aviation Battalion, already mobilized and deployed in January 2017 and are currently providing aerial medical evacuation support using Black Hawk helicopters.
Golf Company, 1-189th Aviation Battalion, has a long tradition of answering the call to duty. The unit conducts medical evacuations (medevac), search and rescues, as well as wild land fire suppression operations utilizing HH-60M Blackhawk helicopters. The unit previously deployed to Bosnia for Operation Joint Forge 7, three times to the Middle East in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn, to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and to Kosovo in support of Operation Joint Guardian.
In attendance at the ceremony were Oregon Treasurer Tobias Read; Maj. Gen. Michael Stencel, Adjutant General, Oregon; and Col. Stephen Schmidt, commander of 82nd Brigade Troop Command; among other elected officials, community and military leaders.