Thank you for your service!
I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to our brave men and women in uniform. Thank you for your service. We are proud to be here to serve you in anyway we can. At Evolution we work hard to make sure those we work with are ready to go overseas. We have a few patients shipping off tomorrow and we are proud to have been there for them. Any service we gave these fine soldiers is just a small token compared to the service they now provide for this country. Serve strong, stand for truth and honor, and return home safe.
Below I have copied the itinerary from the military press release for your information.
Deployment Timeline:
- Aug. 21 – Sep. 9: Annual Training. More than 1,500 Idaho Army National Guard Citizen Soldiers and another 600 from the Oregon Army National Guard will arrive in Boise from around the state on Saturday, Aug. 21 to train at the Orchard Training Area facility about 15 miles south of Boise. COMPLETED
- Aug. 26 – Annual Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) “Boss Lift” at Gowen Field. Some 200 employers of our Soldiers and Airmen will arrive at Gowen Field for a two-day event in which they see their employees, now in uniform, training for upcoming deployments. COMPLETED
- Sep. 2 – Media opportunity to see training at the Orchard Training Area south of Boise. COMPLETED
- Sep. 9 – Sendoff picnic and concert at Gowen Field for Soldiers and families. This event will be closed to the general public, but media representatives will be invited to cover the evening portion which will include a concert, short speeches by elected officials and presentations of gifts to deploying soldiers of the 116th CBCT. COMPLETED
- Sep. 10-17 – Soldiers return to their homes around the state for about a week prior to being placed on active duty with the U.S. Army COMPLETED
- Sep. 17 – Soldiers transition from their status as Idaho National Guard members (under the command and control of the governor) to federal active-duty status with the U.S. Army. For the next several days, Soldiers will perform duties at their home-station armories around the state. COMPLETED
- 20-21 Sep – Soldiers will depart Idaho from Spokane WA, Idaho Falls, Pocatello and Boise for Camp Shelby, Mississippi for about 45 days of mission-specific training.
- Oct. 19 – Camp Shelby, MS will host a “media day” for reporters to see Soldiers of the 116th CBCT in training. Travel expenses to Mississippi are the responsibility of individual media outlets. (There will be a media advisory for this event as we get closer to the date)
- Mid-November – Soldiers depart from Camp Shelby MS for Kuwait, where they will prepare to enter Iraq later that month. We will determine which media outlets are interested in seeing the departure from Mississippi as we get closer to that date.