The 211th Headed for Afghanistan

Posted on Wednesday, October 28, 2009

More than 110 Soldiers from the 211th Engineer Company (Sapper), of Madison and De Smet, departed for Afghanistan on Monday, Oct. 26 as they left for a one-year deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

The South Dakota Army National Guard unit departed from Fort McCoy, Wisconsin after having completed their pre-mobilization training during the past five weeks. Training on a variety of mission specific tasks and learning battle drills and survivability techniques was provided.

Captain Heath Abraham, 211th commander was quoted as saying, "We're as ready as we're going to get. Morale is great and they're ready to go."

The 211th will be conducting mobility, counter mobility and survivability tasks and provide general engineering support to a maneuver unit or a support brigade in theater. The unit will specialize in-route clearance operations, detecting and identifying road-side bombs through the country.

"The equipment is good and the Soldiers are fit. We didn't just bring an a-team of platoon leaders...we have an a-team of Soldiers."

"The 211th Engineer Company is probably one of, if not the highest speed unit we have in the South Dakota National Guard," said Brigadier General,Timothy Reisch, Assistant Adjutant General for the South Dakota Army National Guard.

Reisch, who has two sons deploying with the unit, spoke highly of the unit's leadership and the unit's readiness.

"I'm 100 percent confident that this unit will deploy, do its mission and come back safe, because they've got great competence in leadership," he said.