891st deployment to Africa called off

News

December 13, 2014 - 12:00 AM

Soldiers of the Kansas Army National Guard’s 891st Engineer Battalion, headquartered in Iola, will not go to Africa next spring.
According to a news release, the National Guard Bureau informed Maj. Gen. Lee Tafanelli, Kansas adjutant general, that due to changing mission requirements deployment of the 891st Engineer Battalion to West Africa has been canceled.
“Our soldiers were willing to go,” said Tafanelli, “but it’s a fact of military life that missions can and do change. The Department of Defense reduced the mission requirements, so there was no longer any need for an engineer battalion headquarters and forward support company.”
The deployment was announced in mid-November that 891st soldiers would build medical facilities as part of Operation United Assistance in the ongoing effort to contain the Ebola outbreak. Deployment was to have been for about six months with potential of up to a year.
The 891st Battalion helped clean up after the Greensburg tornado in 2007 and also has served in the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars.

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