South Dakota Air National Guard
For Immediate Release
For More Information:  Lt Col Reid A. Christopherson, 605-988-5644

More Air Guard Members to Return Home Today

Sioux Falls, SD – South Dakota Air National Guard activities during the month of December should include the return of most deployed members from Middle East locations. Twenty-three (23) members of the 114^th Fighter Wing will return to Sioux Falls on Monday, December 3, 2001 at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport.

These guardmembers departed Sioux Falls on various dates in November for United States Air Bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as part of the Expeditionary Combat Support (ECS) element of the Expeditionary Air Force (EAF) plan. While deployed they supported Operation Southern Watch enforcing the no-fly zone over southern Iraq, a mission which has been in place since the 1991 ceasefire agreement that ended Operation Desert Storm. Although alerted to the potential for involuntary activation that might "freeze" them in place for an indefinite period of time if the needs of the nation necessitated, the guardmembers are rotating home in accordance with the original plan.

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