KTTC Rochester, Austin, Mason City News, Weather and SportsHundreds say goodbye to Iowa guard unit
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EAGLE GROVE, Iowa (AP) -- Forty Iowa National Guard soldiers have left Eagle Grove as they prepare to be deployed to Afghanistan.
The members of the 1st Battalion 194th Field Artillery unit boarded a bus Friday for Mississippi following a send-off ceremony that drew nearly 300 friends, family and supporters to the armory in the small northern Iowa town.
The soldiers are among nearly 3,000 Iowa National Guard members being deployed to Afghanistan this summer. It's the largest deployment of Guard troops in Iowa since World War II. The unit will serve a year in Afghanistan, training Afghan forces.
It's the fifth deployment for Sgt. Thomas Heller of Mason City but his first as a husband. His tearful wife, Bethany, says she and her husband tried not to think about the deployment too much.
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