DEVILS LAKE, N.D. - North Dakota leaders attended a send-off ceremony here Sunday, Dec. 11, to honor about 60 Guardsmen preparing for a yearlong deployment.
The North Dakota National Guard's 136th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, based in Devils Lake, will leave early next year to provide command and control structure for logistical units in Afghanistan.
The battalion has Guard members from 28 communities in North Dakota, Minnesota and Kentucky. "Time and again, we've seen our North Dakota Guardsmen answer the call to duty here at home and overseas," Gov. Jack Dalrymple said in a statement.
In attendance at the ceremony were the troops' families and friends, as well as Dalrymple, U.S. Sens. John Hoeven and Heidi Heitkamp, U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer and Maj. Gen. Alan Dohrmann, commander of the North Dakota National Guard.
