Veterans For America

The 13,000 citizen Soldiers of the Minnesota National Guard have made substantial contributions to Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Since September 11, 2001, at least 17,000 members of Minnesota’s National Guard have been deployed.Fourteen members of the Minnesota National Guard have given their lives in OIF.

The Minnesota National Guard’s 1^st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) of the 34^th Infantry Division has the distinction of having the longest deployment of any unit in the U.S. military in the past seven years: 22 months, 16 of them in Iraq.More than 2,600 of the BCT’s 5,000 troops come from Minnesota, making that the 1^st BCT’s tour the largest deployment of the Minnesota National Guard since World War II. The servicemembers of the 1^st BCT and their families also bore the burden of having their tour extended by 125 days when President Bush announced the surge; the unit had originally been scheduled to return in March 2007, but instead came home in August 2007. Minnesota’s Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. Larry Shellito (USA), described the extension as a “raw deal,” saying, “We have every right to be angry.” Members of the Minnesota National Guard have also deployed to assist in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to patrol the border with Mexico, and to fight forest fires.

Read the full report here.