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Local guard units identified for deployment

Formal decision has not yet been made

By Tom Vogt, Columbian Science, Military & History Reporter
Published: May 16, 2011, 12:00am

Fifty local citizen soldiers just learned that their units have been — in Defense Department terminology — “identified for future overseas missions.”

Two Army artillery battalions based at Vancouver Barracks are included in the notice issued to the Washington National Guard’s 81st Brigade Combat Team.

“It is important to understand that a decision to deploy these units has not occurred,” said a news release from the state’s National Guard headquarters at Camp Murray, south of Tacoma.

Before troops are deployed, “the next step would be an alert order, followed by a mobilization order,” spokesman Capt. Keith Kosik said.

At that point, Defense Department officials would announce when and where the mission would be, as well as the length of the deployment.

The notice that the 81st Brigade Combat Team is being considered as a possible component of a mission affects about 3,000 National Guard members. While the 81st is headquartered in Seattle, it includes units — as well as individual soldiers — from around the state.

Two units stationed at Vancouver Barracks that are part of the 81st Brigade are: Detachment 1, Headquarters and Headquarter Battery, 2-146 Field Artillery, with 25 soldiers; and Detachment 1, B Battery, 2-146 Field Artillery Battalion, also with 25 soldiers, Kosik said.

The past weekend was drill weekend, and “our units had a lot of face-to-face conversations,” Kosik said by phone from the headquarters of the Washington Military Department, which oversees the state’s Army National Guard, Air National Guard and emergency management operations.

The notification means that soldiers “can tell their family members, and make sure care plans are in place” for Guard members who have dependent children, Kosik said. “They also can have conversations with their civilian employers.”

The 506th Military Police Company, based in Tacoma, also received the notification.

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Columbian Science, Military & History Reporter