From KLEW: LEWISTON - Local National Guard members are headed to Boise this weekend to start their final training before deployment to Iraq as part of the newly organized "Operation: New Dawn."
About 2,700 troops from Idaho, Montana and Oregon will be part of the next deployment. They are members of the 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team. Around 45 members of the 145th Brigade Support Battalion are from the Lewiston area. According to 2nd Lieutenant Jerome Sitko, this final training is what they've been preparing for.
"A lot of the training that we've done over the last year," said Sitko. "We're going to be doing some more gunnery tasks, more Army warrior tasks."
But Sitko said duties under Operation New Dawn will be different than those of Iraqi Freedom.
"We're going to be taking on more of a support role this time, instead of a combat role," said Sitko. "So we'll be doing force protection. We'll be doing some personnel security missions and convoy security."
Sitko said local guard members are ready to do their part in the new phase of the operation.
"We've had a high tempo for the last year and all of the soldiers have kept a positive attitude and we're ready, we're ready to go," said Sitko.
National Guard members will be in training from August 21st until September 9th. After that they will come home for a week, before heading to Mississippi in October to begin their transition to the Middle East.
The last deployment of the 116th Cavalry was in 2004.
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