St. Tammany soldiers getting set to deploy to Iraq for a year

Published on Friday, April 18, 2008 9:39 AM CDT

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Some of St. Tammany’s finest will be joining 300 fellow soldiers today at the University Center on Southeastern Louisiana University’s north campus in Hammond for a deployment ceremony at 1 p.m.

The Louisiana Army National Guard’s 1-244th Assault Helicopter Battalion is scheduled to deploy to Fort Sill, Okla., this weekend for a three-month pre-deployment training program ultimately preparing them for their deployment to Iraq for a year.

Once overseas, their mission will be to perform Air Assault Operations and Air Movement Operations throughout the country in support of the Multi-National Corps Iraq.

This will be the unit’s second tour in Iraq, having deployed once before in 2004 where the battalion exceeded the expectation s of their miss by conducting approximately 3,700 combat missions, flying over 15,000 combat hours and by pumping over 3.5 million gallons of fuel.

About 45 of the 300 soldiers reside in St. Tammany Parish.

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