SPARTA, Wis. — Approximately 150 Wisconsin Army National Guard Soldiers from the 107th Maintenance Company will deploy to Eastern Europe this spring.

The Sparta-based unit, with detachments in Viroqua, Wisconsin and Camp Ripley, Minnesota will mobilize to U.S. European Command in Eastern Europe to conduct maintenance and recovery operations in the region in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve and a multinational joint exercise – Defender – Europe 2021.

The unit, comprised of mechanics, production controllers, signal support specialists, supply specialists, vehicle recovery experts, armament specialists, and a field feeding section will provide maintenance support to U.S. service members and allied forces operating in the theater.

Soldiers from the unit have been heavily engaged in the state’s domestic missions in the past year. Many served in support of Wisconsin’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the unit has been part of several civil disturbance responses since last spring.

The unit deployed in 1990 to Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War, and it mobilized again in 2003 to Fort McCoy, Wisconsin for a maintenance mission in support of the Global War on Terrorism.

The Wisconsin National Guard continues to maintain a high operations tempo with nearly 600 troops mobilized for the state’s response to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, dozens of Airmen from the Wisconsin Air National Guard continue worldwide mobilizations, and approximately 35 Soldiers from the Wisconsin Army National Guard’s West Bend-based Company G, 2nd Battalion, 104th Aviation remain in the Middle East conducting medevac missions across the theater after deploying in summer 2020.

The 176th Cyber Protection Team also remains mobilized to Fort Meade, Maryland in support of U.S. Cyber Command and Cyber National Mission Force requirements, and approximately 60 Soldiers with the Waukesha, Wisconsin-based 135th Medical Company mobilized in late March for deployment to Kuwait and Iraq.

Those mobilizations follow on the heels of an historic year for the Wisconsin National Guard that saw more than 1,700 Citizen Soldiers and Airmen mobilize at some point for the COVID response, which began March 12, 2020. The COVID mobilization represents the largest sustained domestic mobilization in Wisconsin National Guard history, which dates to 1837.

More than 4,000 troops mobilized to support four separate state elections where they served as poll workers when the pandemic resulted in a shortage of traditional poll workers, and more than 5,000 troops mobilized to help preserve public safety in Wisconsin cities on multiple occasions in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha, Racine, and Wauwatosa.

Another 550 mobilized to support security efforts at the presidential inauguration in January, and others deployed to California to assist efforts to battle wildfires there last fall.

The Wisconsin National Guard also welcomed home hundreds of other troops from overseas deployments over the past year, including 400 Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 128th Infantry that completed a deployment to Afghanistan, 160 Soldiers from the 32nd “Red Arrow” Infantry Brigade Combat Team that deployed to Ukraine, the 1967th Contracting Team, which deployed to Djibouti, the 924th Engineer Facilities Detachment, which deployed to Kuwait, and approximately 150 Soldiers from the 829th Engineer Company that returned last fall from a deployment that spanned several countries across the Middle East and Southwest Asia.