Over the weekend, 210 Wisconsin troops will trade in snow for sand as they deploy to Iraq during the holidays.
The four-unit deployment of the Wisconsin National Guard's 118th Medical Battalion includes 50 members of the 232nd Personnel Services Company based in Madison, approximately 80 soldiers in the 264th Engineering Group based in Chippewa Falls and 10 soldiers from the Det. 1, 139th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment also based in Madison.
Lt. Col. Tim Donovon, director of public affairs for the Wisconsin Army and Air National Guard, said he trained with many being deployed, and they are ready for service.
\This is what they've been trained to do, and they've been working together for many years,"" Donovon said.
According to Donovon, there are ""a lot of students"" who are being deployed and who are currently over in Iraq. He also said those who are being sent over this weekend will not be in combat, but in ""insurgency,"" where they will maintain personal military records.
""[The records] are important and complicated, and they need to be done right, and they [those deployed] know how to do that,"" Donovon said.
Wisconsin citizens are not unfamiliar with departing from loved ones during special times of the year.
A Waunakee resident, asking to be known only as Lynda, was separated from her husband for six months. Lynda's spouse, a career military serviceman and a sergeant first class in the 147th Blackhawk helicopter unit, returned mid-September.
""My 15-year-old daughter and I were trying to figure out how many of her birthdays my husband has missed [because of military duties], and he's missed at least nine,"" she said.
Additionally, Lynda said that during her husband's absence, it was helpful to receive comfort from the 147th unit support group, in which she said she has made close ties between members.
""Military wives don't ask for help,"" she said, adding help given, from shoveling snow to fixing house-hold appliances, is appreciated.
If family members need to contact those overseas in the case of an emergency, the Badger Chapter of the American Red Cross can help make the connection, according to Nancy Strassburg, communications manager of the Red Cross Badger Chapter.
According to Strassburg, during the past fiscal year, they provided emergency services to 419 area families and had information briefings with 500 military personnel, where the staff talks with those being deployed about Red Cross services.
