Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians from the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard gathered at Camp Ripley Training Center, Minnesota for a home-grown training event designed to test and validate conventional ordnance techniques while developing personal skills and confidence earlier this month. Trained to detect, disarm and dispose of explosive threats in sometimes extreme environments,
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Members of Army North’s Civil Support Training Team, out of Fort Sam Houston, Texas, traveled to Minnesota for a pre-evaluation training exercise with the Minnesota National Guard’s 55th Civil Support Team (CST), at the Columbia Heights Membrane Plant in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, September 20, 2022. “This is part of a larger evaluation that the 55th
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Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated across the nation every year from September 15th to October 15th. The Minnesota National Guard values the contributions and service of Hispanic American service members like Staff Sgt. Jaime Reyes, a supply specialist with Joint Force Headquarters Detachment 1. “I initially decided to join for college benefits, and I’ve wanted
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September 11, 2022 (Camp Ripley, Minn.) — On Saturday mornings at Camp Ripley, service members swarm the base, traveling from all over the state, to attend their regular drill weekends. For most, formation marks the beginning of their day. On World Suicide Prevention Day, Sept. 10, a group of service members, friends, family and community
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The mood was festive even before the Minnesota National Guard’s 34th Red Bull Infantry Division Band performed their first note on the morning of the Minnesota State Fair’s Military Appreciation Day August 30, 2022, in Falcon Heights. On Tuesday, hundreds of service members, veterans, their families, and supporters gathered to celebrate the annual event. The
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Minnesota National Guard Army Sgt. Benjamin Goeden started playing the guitar at the young age of 14. However, he was inspired well before then by the iconic hair bands of the 80s. He can recall his first itch to strum a guitar as he watched the revolution of the rock’n’roll scene unfold into what we
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“You can do anything the boys can do…only better.” Those words from her mother instilled bold confidence in Sandy Best at an early age and paved the runway for her becoming the first female promoted to general officer in the 166-year history of the Minnesota National Guard. Air Force Brig. Gen. Sandy Best was honored
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(ESTHERVILLE, Iowa) – Aviators with the Minnesota National Guard’s Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 147th Assault Helicopter Regiment had the unique opportunity to partner with the Iowa National Guard’s Alpha Battery, 1st Battalion, 194th Field Artillery Regiment, in moving artillery equipment via helicopter, known as sling loading, of M119A3 105mm howitzers on July 28, 2022, in
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August 3, 2022 (SHAKOPEE, Minn.) — The Minnesota National Guard’s St. Paul-based, 55th Civil Support Team partnered with the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community Department of Public Safety, the FBI’s Minneapolis Hazardous Evidence Response Team, and Minnesota’s State Fire Marshall during a field training exercise near Shakopee, August 3, 2022. It is important for the joint
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August 1, 2022 (Bloomington, Minn.) — More than six months after the Minnesota National Guard’s ‘Task Force 1-194,’ made up of members of the Brainerd-based 1st Combined Arms Battalion, of the 194th Armor Regiment returned from a deployment to the Middle East, service members are settling back into their lives. “I missed my wife a
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