Thousands of Mississippians Prepare for Deployment

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – They are always ready and always there.

That’s why the 155th Armored Brigade plans for the days ahead.

4,200 Mississippian National Guardsmen will be deployed to Kuwait next year.

This deployment is part of Operation Spartan Shield, and the headquarters in Starkville is responsible for 100 of those 4,200 Mississippians being deployed.

There’s still one more stop before Kuwait, and that will be in Fort Bliss, Texas.

“We’ve already started over the past two years in anticipation of actually deploying,” said Sergeant First Class, Neil Wesley.

Anticipation won’t be the case much longer as thousands of Mississippians are to be deployed to Kuwait as part of Operation Spartan Shield.

“We’ll mobilize in the Spring and do some mobilization training at Fort Bliss, Texas in the spring with the follow-on deployment to the Middle East later in the summer,” said Major Dennis Bittle.

For two years, the brigade has trained in Fort Hood, Texas and the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California, which is different from usual training.

“This is more of our war fighter skills that we are honing in on. You know, we always practice our field artillery skills, but this one helps us more for our war fighter mission,” explained Wesley.

The purpose of Spartan Shield is to provide a ready force in the Middle East should it be needed.

For the brigade in Mississippi, this isn’t the first deployment they’ve seen since the turn of the century.

“Two major deployments, one in 2005, one in 2009 and ’10, so we’ve got some experience,” said Bittle.

Being several years since that last deployment, officers offer advice to those who are experiencing deployment for the first time.

“Depend on your family support groups that each one of our units has. Make sure your spouse or significant others are involved in that to kind of help them as we transition into our war fighter function,” said Wesley.

“One: be prepared, and two: take it all in. Be sure to listen to those mentors and the evaluators and the trainers, and everything will turn out just fine,” said Bittle.

Officers emphasize the importance of a deployment of this size.

“It gives you a sense of purpose. That’s what our deployment does; it validates everything that we’ve done up until this time and actually lets us be a part of the big overall picture in helping fight terrorism in the world,” said Wesley.

The 155th Armored Brigade will be in the Middle East for 9 months.