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Air Guard Units Get New Commanders
Two new commanders have taken
charge at Brunswick’s 224th Joint Communications Support Squadron and
Savannah’s 117th Air Control Squadron.
Full Story
Major Gen. Terry Nesbitt (in ACUs), Georgia Army Guard commander, looks on
while Sgt. Marcus Hursey (right) receives his Combat Recognition Pin from
Boeing representatives Carl Trincia and Cathy Anthony. (Contributed photo)
Aviation Regiment Earns
Boeing Award
Detachment 1, Company
F, 131st Aviation Regiment in Savannah was spot-lighted during the BOEING
Helicopter Company's Combat Recognition Ceremony, hosted by the
Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum in Pooler.
Full Story
Cross Country
Walkers Find
Support In Georgia's 1148th
As members of the
Georgia National Guard continue supporting the U.S. – Mexico border
mission in New Mexico, Soldiers of Thomasville’s 1148th Transportation
Company took up a border mission of their own along the Georgia-Florida
state line.
Full Story
Brig. Gen. Rodeheaver
delivers first pitch
Guard Helps Braves Commemorate '9/11'
Fifth Anniversary
Georgia National Guardsmen and aircraft were prominent in helping the
Atlanta Braves commemorate the fifth anniversary of the September 11,
2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
More Pictures, Story
'Demorest Doc' Joins Guard
Edwin Hendricks, 57, a Demorest, Ga.,
family physician decided its time for him to follow the late President
John F. Kennedy’s philosophy of “Ask not what your country can do for
you…ask what you can do for your country.” And in this case, also for
one’s state.
Full Story
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Georgia
Army Guard Strength
Tops 10,000
The
Georgia Army National Guard topped over 10,000 Soldiers in 2006 making
it one of the top three states in the nation for recruiting in the past
year, and jumping Georgia into the top-10 states in terms of total Army
Guard size. The state recruited 2,768 news Soldiers in 2006, and
finished the fiscal year with an end-strength of 10,076 Army Guardsmen,
which represented a total increase of nearly 900 over the past year.
Lt. Col. Pete Vanamburgh, who commanded the Recruiting and Retention
Battalion, said the increase jumped Georgia into the category of the
“large” National Guard states which translates into more resources
including training funds and full time manpower.
Read More.
Exercise Tests
Military, Civilian
Medical Preparedness
A Category 3 hurricane
crashing in on Savannah and the Coastal Empire was the frightening, yet
eerily reminiscent, Katrina-style scenario that more than 150 Air
National Guard medical personnel from eight southeastern states,
including those from Georgia, faced recently at Garden City’s Combat
Readiness Training Center.
Full Story
Receiving the NGAUS Air National Guard
Mission Support Award are Col. Floyd Harbin (left), commander, CRTC
and General Bruce Carlson, commander Air Materiel command.
CRTC
Earns Mission Support Honor
Savannah’s Combat Readiness Training Center received the Air National
Guard Mission Support Award, an honor equivalent to the Distinguished
Flying Plaque, at the 128th General NGAUS Conference recently in
Albuquerque, N.M. Full Story
The Georgia Army National Guard’s Medical
Command welcomed a new commanding officer, while paying tribute to the
service of a Soldier who held that position for nine years. Accepting
the unit guidon was Lt. Col. Kirk O. Austin who previously was the
Medical Command deputy commander.
Full Story
Lieutenant Col. Craig M. McGalliard, took
command of First Battalion,118th Field Artillery, 48th Brigade Combat
Team in mid-September. McGalliard served in Iraq with the 122nd Rear
Operations Command during 2005.
Full Story
Joint Customer Service
Team Kicks
Off
October 2-6 is International Customer Service Week and the Georgia
Department of Defense honored the event with the inaugural meeting of
Joint Customer Service Team (JCST). The effort is in response to the
request by Governor Sonny Perdue to have all 42 of his state agencies to
become faster, friendlier, and easier. His vision is that Georgia will
have the best customer service of any state in the nation. The Governor’s
Office of Customer Service was created and funded by the Georgia General
Assembly during the 2006 session to assist state agencies.
Customer Service Page |
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Deployment Update |
Sergeant Claudia
Kokasm kisses and hugs her sons Mark and Charles as they welcome their
mother home. (Georgia National Guard photo by Spc. Amanda Luksic)
221st Military Intelligence Unit
Returns From Deployment
FORT GILLEM, Ellenwood, Sept. 22, 2006 – Sounds of
jubilant celebration filled the gym of Neal Fitness Center, but it
wasn’t enthusiastic sports fans cheering on their favorite basketball
team that stood shouting and waving banners from the stands.
The noise that reverberated throughout the building this day was came
from more than 200 families, friends and fellow Soldiers welcoming
home Georgia’s 221st Military (MI) Intelligence Battalion. The unit
returned mid afternoon from its second deployment in two year’s time
in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Full Story |
Brig. Gen. Robert V. Taylor, Chairman NGAUS,
Lt. Gen. Poythress and Col. Steve Joyce with Georgia's 100 percent
Membership Award.
Georgia Guard Earns Praise At NGAUS
Conference
There was a distinctive Georgia flair at
the 128th NGAUS Annual Conference in
Albuquerque in September when a number of Georgians, Georgia Guardsmen,
and Georgia National Guard units received Conference recognition before
the more than 4,200 attendees.
Full Story
Historical Society Conference
To Feature
Deployment Panel
The Historical Society of the Georgia
National Guard will
 conduct its 13th Annual Historical Conference in
Macon, GA on November 4, 2006 at the Macon Conference Center adjacent to
the Holiday Hotel at 3590 Riverside Drive and I-75.
The half-day conference
entitled, “The Georgia Guard Deploys for War” features discussions from
eight Georgia Army and Air National Guardsmen who have recently deployed
in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The $20 conference fee includes a
luncheon buffet and reservations are requested. For more information
contact John Hardwick at 678-569-6451 or
john.hardwick@ga.ngb.army.mil.
Read More
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A look at what happened in
October
in Georgia National Guard history:…
1940
– General Order No. 29, dated 1 Oct., converted
Georgia’s 108th Cavalry units into coast artillery batteries. Troops A
(Georgia Hussars) and B (Liberty Independent Troop) became batteries A
and B, 101st Separate Coast Artillery Battalion. Machine Gun
Troop (Governor’s Horse Guard) became Battery C of the 101st. The
state’s new artillery battalion had a headquarters, a medical
detachment and a new unit, Battery D, in Bainbridge.
1955
– Georgia Air National Guardsmen participated in a
nationwide “surprise” practice alert, code name “Operation Stopwatch.”
Brigadier Gen. Homer Flynn, Georgia’s Assistant Adjutant General for
Air, noted at the time that of the 73 Air Guard fighter-interceptor
squadrons nationwide scrambling for the exercise, four were from
Georgia. Squadron commanders were alerted when the operation began and
then unit members were contacted. Within an hour of the alert, Georgia
pilots were flying their F-84D Thunderjets from Marietta and Savannah
toward Oak Ridge, Tenn. Their practice mission was to protect Oak
Ridge’s Y-12 atomic energy plant from enemy bombers.
1986
– The new 244th Aviation Battalion, comprised of Detachment 1,
Headquarters, and Det. 1, Company D, and an aviation company, Company
B, drilled for the first time in Winder. The 244th replaced Company A,
158th Military Intelligence Battalion, which moved to Dobbins Air
Reserve Base in Marietta. Also drilling for the first time in Winder
was the aviation section, previously stationed at Dobbins, of the
265th Engineer Group. Both units flew the UH-1 “Huey” helicopter. The
265th also flew the OH-58 “Kiowa” light observation helicopter.
Complied by Gail Parnelle,
GaARNG Historical Section |
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