Local National Guard troops are getting ready for another overseas deployment later this year that will have them serving in the Middle East through next spring, a Guard official said Thursday.
Lt. Col. Frank Querns, the battalion commander for McComb’s 155th infantry, told the McComb Exchange Club that local troops will go to Fort Bliss, Texas, in May and then on to Kuwait, where the unit deployed in support of Operation Spartan Shield in 2018.
“It’s nothing new to us, except we did this as a brigade four years ago. We’re going in as a much smaller element,” Querns said.
Units from California and Arkansas will join Mississippi Guardsmen in continued support of Operation Spartan Shield, a U.S. Central Command operation in the Middle East that is supported by all military branches.
“This will be my fifth deployment,” said Querns, who also mobilized in support of Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield — although the conflict ended before his unit went overseas — before being sent overseas to Bosnia-Herzegovina and twice to Iraq in addition to the 2018 deployment to Kuwait.
The 2001 deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina was part of a military command known as Task Force Rifles, which was smaller than the 3,000-plus Mississippi guardsmen who went to Iraq as a part of the 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team.
“This is the second time Task Force Rifles is deploying. We’re not deploying as a battalion. We’re deploying as a brigade,” Querns said.
He said the deployment will consist of “essentially the same mission as four years ago, working with the Cent Com.”
“We’ll go to Egypt. We’ll train with Egyptians and train with some European armies as well,” he said. “We’ll have a lot of partnership training while we’re there but we’ll also be a rapid response force if things flare up.”
Querns said Guardsmen have been training at Camp Shelby south of Hattiesburg for the past three or four months in preparation for the task ahead. An event called Yellow Ribbon is taking place this weekend to inform families of soldiers what support is available to them during the deployment.
“We’ve been training very hard and I’m very proud of our team. We’ve done a lot of things in a very short amount of time,” Querns said. “We won’t be the only Mississippi unit there. You’ve got the 168th Engineer unit out of Vicksburg. They’re currently at Fort Hood waiting to go to the same location we’re going to go to in Kuwait.”
The 185th Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigade in Jackson also will deploy to Kuwait with them.
“There will be a lot of Mississippi folks in Kuwait all at the same time,” Querns said.
Another battalion from Kansas will relieve the 155th when its mission is completed next spring.
Turning to other Guard topics, Querns said the armory in Amory was hit hard by last weekend’s tornado outbreak and he knows of three soldiers there who have been personally affected, with one losing her house and car in the storm and two others receiving heavy damage to their homes.
He said recruitment is steady overall but overall enlistment numbers are down.
“We’re doing good, it’s just the young people these days, I guess they’re just not into the military as they used to be,” he said. “We’ve been trying to get our numbers up because you’ve got soldiers who are retiring.”
He said there’s plenty of incentive to join. Enlisted Guardsmen can attend most four-year colleges in Mississippi tuition-free, and the Guard is giving $20,000 signing bonuses for infantrymen, armored tanker personnel, track mechanics and intelligence officers, in addition to $20,000 reenlistment bonuses.
