Red Bulls prepare for next deployment

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy
National Guard Bureau

ARLINGTON, Va., (8/10/10) -- Soldiers from the Minnesota Army National Guard’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division are preparing to deploy to Iraq and Kuwait, and morale is high within the unit, the brigade commander said.

“I think overall the excitement level is high,” Army Col. Eric Kerska told local reporters on Aug. 7. “We hear about the ‘Greatest Generation’ - the World War II generation - but what people don’t realize is that the Minnesota Guard has never been at a higher strength.

“The young people of this generation want to serve. They want to be part of something larger than themselves and morale is high.”

The brigade last deployed to Iraq from 2005-2007. The 22-month deployment, 16 of which were in combat, has been recognized by Congress as the longest deployment to Iraq of any military unit, Guard officials said.

Scheduled to head overseas in early 2011, the brigade is currently at Camp Ripley, Minn., preparing for that deployment.

“We’re concentrating on individual Soldier skills, survival skills and weapons proficiency,” said Kerska. “Mainly, focusing on the squad level. We’re going to run through some lanes where we’re going to challenge their small teams.”

Kerska said that while Camp Ripley provides a great training location, there is one thing that is missing.

“The temperatures (here are) cooler,” he said. “As the joke goes, they have a dry heat and here we’ve got the humidity and the mosquitoes and gnats to contend with.”

Despite the lack of dry heat, the unit is still training based on real-world scenarios.

“For the training purposes at this point, it doesn’t matter if it’s got trees or desert,” said Kerska. “We’re going to run through the skills that need to be trained on. We’re simulating (the conditions while deployed) as much as possible with how the Soldiers live.

“We’re setting up forward operating bases. They’re operating out of camps just as they will in Iraq or Kuwait or wherever we end up going.”

As conditions change in Iraq with a drawdown of U.S. forces, the brigade is ensuring it’s as prepared as it can be.

“We in the brigade train for, I guess the best way to put it, is for the worst case,” said Kerska. “We want to be prepared for anything that could happen.”

And that means more training.

“We’re doing the prudent thing and training as hard as we can to get ready for it,” said Kerska.

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