KDSN RADIO News
Le Mars Iowa National Guard unit preps for overseas mission
Iowa National Guard members in northwest Iowa are preparing for a major, year-long deployment next month that’ll take them to an undisclosed location in the Middle East.
Captain Ivan Naranjo, commander of the Le Mars-based 113th Cavalry Unit, says they’re ready to carry out their assigned mission.
“Wherever we go, we’re going to just provide security for the place that we are at,” Naranjo says. “It’s a defensive mission. We’re just going to help protect the base that we’re in and our partner nation forces in supporting them in what they do. We’re letting them take the reins on operations, and we’re just helping to provide security along the way.”
The Le Mars unit is one of many from Iowa that will make up a force of 18-hundred taking part in the mission. Naranjo took over command of the 113th about a year ago, and he says he’s very fortunate.
“I came into it, and it already had an incredibly positive and productive culture. People want to go to extra schools. They want to go to extra training. They take the job seriously, as they should, for being infantry men,” he says. “We have a potentially dangerous job in terms of what we do, but everybody here approaches it like a true professional.”
Following his service in Afghanistan, this will be Naranjo’s second deployment overseas, a mission for which he and the rest of the unit have long been training.
“This is a fantastic opportunity because I get to use it, you know, it’s not just training anymore,” he says. “I get to take all the lessons learned in training and apply them into real life situations. That’s going to help keep me and my soldiers safe, which is the ultimate end goal, to bring everybody home, keep them safe and teach them how to be a more professional soldier.”
There will be a sendoff ceremony for the Le Mars unit on May 28th at Le Mars Community High School. After the sendoff, the 113th will leave for the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Johnson, Louisiana, then the soldiers will be overseas for about ten months.
(By John Slegers, KLEM, Le Mars)
