Oregon Army National Guard Mobilizes Citizen-Soldiers for Middle East Deployment
(SALEM, Ore.) — The Oregon Army National Guard is scheduled to honor Citizen-Soldiers in a mobilization ceremony on Friday, Sept. 29, at 10:00 a.m., at the Anderson Readiness Center, located at 3225 State Street, 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 area and 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 G Company, 1-189th Aviation, already mobilized and deployed in January 2017 and are currently providing aerial medical evacuation support using Black Hawk helicopters.
Golf Company, 1-189th Aviation, 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 Black Hawk 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.
Source: Oregon Military Department
