Photo By Staff Sgt. Melissa Wood | Soldiers from the California Army National Guard’s Headquarters and Headquarters...... read more read more
VAN NUYS, Calif. – Soldiers from the California Army National Guard’s Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 746th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, bid farewell to family and friends today during a deployment ceremony at the battalion’s Van Nuys headquarters as they prepared for departure to Fort Hood, Texas en route to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.
The company’s departure marks the culmination of a full year of training carefully designed to prepare its logisticians for combat operations within the austere environment in which they will soon find themselves. Handpicked for their expertise in logistics management, each soldier was a willing volunteer for the mission that will ultimately take them to some of the most remote places within the borders of Afghanistan.
“A lot of the unit’s soldiers have unique logistics skill sets, coupled with civilian skills that they bring from being a citizen soldier,” Col. Julian H. Bond, commander of the 224th Sustainment Brigade, 746th CSSB’s higher headquarters, said Saturday. “Their premobilization training activities then honed their skills for an expeditionary mission such as this one.”
After the 746th’s notable performance at National Training Center last year, the battalion’s headquarters element was specifically selected to provide critical sustainment management in support of both U.S. and coalition forces throughout the area of operations in Afghanistan.
“The Seven Four Six was chosen for this mission based upon their readiness and their recent rotation at National Training Center, which is the premier collective training event for all Army forces,” Bond said. “They did a stellar job supporting an active component brigade combat team, and they were singularly recognized for providing world-class sustainment during the exercise.”
Although this will mark HHC, 746th CSSB’s first deployment as an organic unit, the majority of the company’s soldiers have deployed with other units throughout the 224th, some three or four times over. The brigade’s soldiers have been continuously deployed overseas throughout the entirety of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom, in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, and most recently to Ukraine.
Upon their arrival in Afghanistan, the unit’s soldiers will join more than 500 of their California Army National Guard counterparts who are currently deployed outside the continental United States.
Maj. William Mendelsohn, 746th CSSB’s Executive Officer, said his soldiers’ level of experience greatly contributed to the unit’s readiness during training and will continue to prove an invaluable asset as they officially begin their mobilization. He said the lessons learned during this rotation will help provide critical information necessary to better equip additional units within the 746th as they prepare for their own impending deployments to the same operational environment.
| Date Taken: | 02.11.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 02.15.2017 14:08 |
| Story ID: | 223630 |
| Location: | VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | VAN NUYS, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 2,362 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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