Indiana National Guard members navigate an obstacle course in Edinburgh. Photo by Timothy Sproles of Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.

By Casey Smith
Indiana Capital Chronicle

INDIANA — Some 600 Hoosier soldiers will begin a deployment to the Middle East this week, the Indiana National Guard announced Monday, Sept. 23.

The soldiers will train for about a month at Fort Cavazos in Texas, and from there head to the Middle East in support of Operation Spartan Shield — a United States operation “to strengthen defense relationships and build partner capacity through leader engagements, multinational exercises and response planning,” according to the Indiana Guard.

Officials said the deployment is expected to last twelve months, with nine months spent overseas.

The mobilized soldiers are part of the 38th Infantry Division. The Indiana Guard describes the division as the Army’s “primary tactical-level warfighting headquarters,” employing brigade combat teams, functional and multi-functional brigades, and other Army forces “in full spectrum operations across the spectrum of conflict to achieve military objectives.”

Members of the division are trained to provide command and control over Army forces engaged in “decisive and shaping operations” and support Army forces “conducting sustaining operations.”

“We man, train and equip to defeat near peer adversaries and compete with regional adversaries below the threshold of war,” according to the Indiana Guard.

In June, guardsman refined their tactics, techniques and procedures during a nine-day exercise that tested their proficiencies.

“This exercise prepares you like nothing else can,” said Maj. Gen. Dan Degelow, the division’s commanding general. “This is a learning laboratory. Don’t stop learning, and make your organization better.”

The mission returns many of the unit’s soldiers, who deployed for the same mission in 2019, to the Middle East hot bed with tensions rising throughout the region, a news release said.

A public departure ceremony for the citizen-soldiers will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Camp Atterbury, near Edinburgh.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, Maj. Gen. Dale Lyles, adjutant general, and Degelow, are scheduled to speak during the ceremony at the camp’s North Barracks Complex.

Earlier this year, 50 Hoosier National Guard soldiers departed Indiana for the Texas border town of El Paso, where the company is continuing to carry out a 10-month deployment meant to reinforce Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to close off his state’s share of the U.S.-Mexico border.