Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991 TAG: 9102270584
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
While Guard officials and family members will not pinpoint locations or missions of the eight units, it is possible to piece together a picture of their activities.
Most of the Virginians have not participated directly in the fighting, but some have been and will continue to be well in harm's way, officials said.
"Our MP company was within two miles of where the Scud hit the barracks," Maj. Gen. John G. Castles, adjutant general of the Virginia National Guard, said Tuesday. He was referring to the missile attack Monday on a Guard barracks and mess hall in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
All of the Virginia National Guard units mobilized for Operation Desert Storm and sent to Saudi Arabia have been combat support and combat service support organizations.
Only one combat unit has been activated, a Richmond helicopter assault company, and it has not been sent over yet, officials said.
Days into the allied ground offensive, Iraqi troops are retreating from occupied Kuwait. But President Bush has warned the war is not over and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein still must satisfy a long roster of United Nations mandates.
Equipped with its own vehicles, the 229th Military Police Company from Chesapeake and Staunton has missions such as traffic control along supply routes to keep convoys moving smoothly near Dhahran.
"Though not organized as a POW unit," said Maj. Stuart MacInnis, the Guard's spokesman, "they have the capability to do some of that mission."
The 986th Air Ambulance Medical Detachment - a helicopter medical evacuation unit from Richmond - is most likely near the forward edge of battle. The unit's mission is to evacuate injured soldiers from the battlefield to the rear where they can receive medical treatment.
It was the first unit called up from the Virginia National Guard last September.
Virginia's smallest unit, the three-member 116th Military History Detachment from Manassas, was deployed to Saudi Arabia a month before the first attacks on Iraqi forces.
Military historians act much like the civilian reporters covering the war, interviewing soldiers and photographing combat scenes to "document information of historic value," Castles said.
The 1033rd Transportation Company, a cargo-hauling truck unit from Gate City, has been in Saudi Arabia "moving all types of supplies and equipment to the front, including armored (personnel) carriers and ammunition," Castles said.
Another Southwest Virginia unit, the 1032nd Transportation Co. from Big Stone Gap, also has been operating in northern Saudi Arabia, he said. The 1032nd is a truck unit hauling petroleum supplies, such as tank fuel.
The 183rd Personnel Service Co. from Richmond is "designed to provide administrative support to a large military organization," such as a division or the larger corps, MacInnis said. "It can do that whereever that type of [administrative] function's needed."
Richmond's 176th Combat Engineer Group went to Saudi Arabia on Dec. 8. "Our engineers have been involved in road construction as well as [building] helicopter pads," Castles said.
Besides the 176th Engineers, the Virginia National Guard has sent the 1030th Engineer Battalion Headquarters from Gate City, a unit that was judged the best Army Guard organization in the country last year, to Saudi Arabia.
by CNB