Mississippi 1-204th Air Defense Artillery Battalion motto “First to Fire Last to Leave” soldiers puts it, “Iraq is not Washington— I don’t think it has really hit me yet, but it was hard watching my husband leave.” Colonel Robert Thomas, Assistant Adjutant General and Commander 66th Troop Command, commented that “these men and women are skilled professionals who understand their mission and will succeed in fulfilling it”. Typically a National Guard or Reserve unit will prepare and train for
The Story of One Unit’s Deployment to Iraq
By Lori Leffler, A-35 Committee Chair
Awaiting – I Miss Your Laughter, Your Smile, Your Voice And For Your Return I’ve Long Been Anticipating, For No Matter The Mile of Distance Between Us Forever For You . . . I’ll Be Waiting . . .
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s the Department of Defense conducts Operation New Dawn with the drawdown in Iraq, it is important to remember that some of our nation’s finest men and women continue to serve and be deployed in this dangerous country. Included in these deployments are the Citizen Soldiers of the United States National Guard and Reserve. One National Guard unit is the Mississippi 1-204th Air Defense Artillery (1-204th ADA), headquartered in Newton, Mississippi, under the Command of LTC Don C. Ahshapenek. This battalion recently departed home, headed for Iraq, and is set to be 14 |
Defense Transportation Journal
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away from loved ones, families, civilian jobs, and the safety of US soil for a year. The 1-204th ADA, trained in Air Defense Artillery, will protect Forward Operating Bases (FOBs). Per Major General Freemen, Adjutant General of the Mississippi National Guard, this unit will have a very important Counter Rocket Artillery Mortar (C-RAM) mission—to shoot down rockets and mortars. Their expertise has been proven: this is not the first deployment for the 1-204th ADA. They have been in Washington, DC, on oneyear deployments twice since the 9-11 attacks, but as a wife of one of the deploying
August 2011
months before deploying. One young soldier commented that this might only be a one-year deployment but it is a two-year commitment considering all the preparation. LTC Ahshapenek is confident that the troops are prepared to carry out the mission because they have trained long and hard. He also recognizes the strength of the community. “The families, the communities here in Mississippi . . . that’s where our soldiers gain a lot. The support we’ve had this last year is magnificent. I want to thank them personally for all that they’ve done,” said LTC Ahshapenek. Like countless Reserve and Guard units throughout the country, the 1-204th ADA operates from multiple armories within the state, in this case, located in Bay Springs, Newton, Morton, and Forest, Mississippi. These small communities and others like them throughout the states, will be without sons, brothers, dads, husbands, fiancés, moms, sisters, daughters, and friends. Their loved ones anxiously await their return, but everyone knows the importance of the mission and has unwavering support of their soldiers. The 1-204th ADA’s deployment began early for Mississippi’s Citizen Soldiers. Goodbyes were not the typical ones we see at civilian airports, but rather en masse, as troops gathered with loved ones before boarding special convoys of buses, some be-
