18-hundred Iowa National Guard troops will soon be heading to the Middle East to help provide security, support, and stability in the region.
The soldiers come from across the state, and will be gone for one year.
Jackie Schmillen, the Director of Public Affairs for the Iowa National Guard, says they provide many services to help the soldier families.
“We have 10 different locations across the state where family members, if they’re ever in need of anything, can reach out to Warrior Family or if there’s community members that want to know how they can help or anything like that. It’s kind of on a case-by-case basis where they make sure and get the necessary resources or assistance or help to those family members that might need it while their loved one is deployed. We do have a resource number if they ever, anyone should ever need it. It’s 515-252-4776 and you just wanna, when you’re prompted to, you wanna go to family programs.”
Schmillen tells RadioOnTheGo News that today’s soldiers are joining the military for different reasons.
“Their grandfather, the father, the mother served, some just feel like service in itself. How can they give back? And the wonderful thing about the Iowa national guard is that you’re serving both state and nation. So we’re the only military entity where that is happening. So if something happens in your community or a part of the state, we’re the ones called upon to assist that when emergency management needs that assistance. So a lot of people, I think love the fact that they’re quite often when they are called upon, it’s in their own communities or in their own state that they love.”
She adds the Iowa National Guard continues to do well in recruiting new members, as there are about 9-thousand soldiers in the guard at the present time.
