Col. Todd Nehls of the Wisconsin Army National Guard had just completed a year-long tour of duty for the National Guard Bureau, to be the Wisconsin National Guard’s subject matter expert on terrorism, shortly before the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Gulf War and the Wisconsin National Guard’s service in it. The first article published Jan. 14, 2020 and is available at: http://dma.wi.gov/DMA/news/2021news/21010
Thirty years ago, the first Wisconsin National Guard units deployed to a combat zone in decades waited with anticipation as the coming conflict with Iraq inched closer.
By this date in 1990, nearly 220 Wisconsin Army National Guard members had deployed to Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Desert Shield, while as many as 70 Airmen from the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s 128th Air Refueling Wing had been refueling aircraft at home and overseas on a volunteer, rotational basis since early August.
A training cycle at Fort Irwin, California’s National Training Center, located in the Mojave Desert, is never easy.
FORT MCCOY, Wis. — The Wisconsin Army National Guard’s 1158th Transportation Company got valuable hands-on experience loading its heavy equipment transports (HETs) and other equipment onto rail cars in advance of an upcoming exercise at Fort Hood, Texas.
BRANDON, Wis. — Wisconsin National Guard Soldiers received a valuable real-world opportunity to train on loading, transporting and offloading an inoperative heavy military vehicle. Brandon Community Park received some vintage military hardware to salute the veterans in its community.
FORT MCCOY, Wis. — Before sunrise tomorrow morning, 14 Wisconsin Army National Guard Soldiers will take part in the opening events of a grueling three-day gauntlet that is the Best Warrior Competition. The demanding competition will measure each Soldier’s physical fitness and stamina, marksmanship, land navigation, Soldier skills, military bearing and composure.
An exchange program has helped forge personal relationships and improve interoperability between the United States and the United Kingdom after partnering noncommissioned officers from both countries together for two weeks of training in Wisconsin.
More than 1,400 Wisconsin National Guard Soldiers and Airmen in nine different units were activated for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991 — the first presidential call-up of reserve component troops in more than two decades.