Welcome Home Ceremony Scheduled for National Guard Unit

South Dakota National Guard

Public Affairs Office

 Phone: 605-737-6721  Email: pao@sd.ngb.army.mil Web: https://sdguard.ngb.army.mil www.facebook.com/SouthDakotaNationalGuard www.flickr.com/SouthDakotaNationalGuard

 Sept. 24, 2012

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

  

Welcome Home Ceremony Scheduled For National Guard Unit

 

Soldiers of the South Dakota Army National Guard’s 842nd Engineer Company are scheduled to arrive back in the Black Hills on Thursday, Sept. 27, after completing a yearlong deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

 

A welcome-home ceremony for the 160 soldiers is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. MDT at the Donald E. Young Center at Black Hills State University in Spearfish. The public is encouraged to attend.

 

Gov. Dennis Daugaard, Rep. Kristi Noem, Spearfish Mayor Jerry Krambeck, Sturgis Mayor Mark Carstensen, Belle Fourche Mayor Gary Hendrickson and Maj. Gen. Tim Reisch, the adjutant general of the SDNG, are scheduled featured speakers at the ceremony.

 

Members of the 842nd arrived in the United States on Sept. 17 and have been completing de-mobilization requirements at Fort Bliss, Texas, before returning to South Dakota.

 

The Spearfish, Belle Fourche and Sturgis-based unit deployed in September 2011 with a mission to provide horizontal construction and engineering support. Equipped with bulldozers, scrapers, cranes, loaders and 20‐ton dump trucks, the unit built and maintained roads, constructed base force protection measures and provided limited clearing operations.

 

Parades for the 842nd are scheduled to precede the welcome-home ceremony and are tentatively scheduled in Belle Fourche, Whitewood, Sturgis and Spearfish at times yet to be determined.

 

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FOR MORE INFORMATION please contact Maj. Anthony Deiss at (605) 737-6721 or cell (605) 431-8753, or e-mail  pao@sd.ngb.army.mil.