Dalrymple Thanks Guardsmen for Successful Mission Protecting the Nation's Capital

Press Release

Gov. Jack Dalrymple today officially welcomed home more than 200 members of the North Dakota National Guard's (NDNG) 1st Battalion, 188th Air Defense Artillery Regiment and thanked them for completing a successful mission defending the nation's capital. The soldiers were deployed to Washington, D.C. on a yearlong mission and returned to North Dakota in May. The unit's members were honored today during a Freedom Salute ceremony in Grand Forks.

"The members of the 1-188th Air Defense Artillery honorably served and represented our state and nation while deployed to Washington, D.C.," Dalrymple said. "They successfully completed an important mission defending our homeland and protecting our nation's capital. We are proud of these Guardsmen and grateful to them and their families for their exemplary service."

While deployed, the 1-188th conducted 24-hour operations as the ground-based air defense battalion and collaborated with other Department of Defense agencies as part of the integrated air defense system designed to protect the airspace around the National Capital Region. This was the unit's 10th deployment since 2004, making it the most-deployed unit in the NDNG. The unit is headquartered in Grand Forks, with detachments in Bismarck and Fargo.

The Governor and First Lady visited with members of the 1-188th in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 21. They received an operations briefing from the unit's leaders and visited the Joint Air Defense Operations Center to learn more about the mission and daily operations of monitoring and defending the airspace. They also toured a training site used by the agencies comprising the air defense system and had a chance to visit with several of the unit's soldiers.

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