Sendoff set for Wisconsin National Guard artillery battery

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Gov. Scott Walker, Maj. Gen. Don Dunbar, Wisconsin adjutant general, and other senior Wisconsin National Guard leaders will join family and friends of Battery A, 1st Battalion, 121st Field Artillery Regiment for a 10:30 a.m. sendoff ceremony April 2nd at the 128th Air Refueling Wing base in Milwaukee.

Battery A is a high mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) unit located in Sussex, Wis. The unit will provide combat artillery fire support in support of coalition forces operating in Afghanistan. Battery A will become just the second National Guard artillery battery to provide artillery support in Afghanistan after its brethren in Battery B, 1st Battalion, 121st Field Artillery drew the first assignment in 2013.

The nearly 80 Soldiers of Battery A spent most of March training at Fort McCoy, Wis., and will continue deployment-specific training at Fort Bliss, Texas, before arriving in Afghanistan. The unit previously deployed to Iraq in 2006-07 and 2009-10, and is expected to return in winter 2015.