Wyoming National Guard unit leaves for Iraq deployment

[Thom Little]

Family, friends and community leaders bid farewell to the latest group of local Wyoming Army National Guard soldiers being deployed to Iraq.

By the end of the ceremony Tuesday, Sandy Eisenman of Sheridan - whose husband, Sgt. 1st Class David Eisenman is among the troops being deployed - had tears in her eyes.

"I guess I'm just an emotional person," she said.

Her husband and the other members of the Guard's 2-300th Field Artillery will be gone for more than a year.

"We'll be OK," David Eisenman said. "These are an excellent bunch of young people I'll be serving with. The best."

The 2-300th is based in Sheridan and also has units in Casper, Cody, Douglas, Gillette, Lander, Lovell, Powell and Worland. It is mobilizing 159 soldiers for up to 545-days to support Operation Iraqi Freedom, said Guard spokeswoman Deidre Forster.


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