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Guard units to be reorganizedST. JOSEPH NEWS PRESS JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Three of Northwest Missouri's National Guard armories - in St. Joseph, Trenton, and Maryville, - will increase in size, according to a Guard reorganization plan announced Monday. No state armories will be closed because of the reorganization, which has been billed as the largest reorganization of the Missouri Army National Guard since World War II. The guard will keep faith with local communities that have armories while reorganizing to support mobile brigades that can respond quickly as a modular force capable of plugging into any Army unit, Brig. Gen. King Sidwell, Missouri's new adjutant general said. In St. Joseph, the 135th Signal Battalion's headquarters company, with an authorized strength of 120 soldiers stationed at the state armory on the southeast corner of Woodbine Road and Faraon Street, will become the 135th Special Troops Battalion's headquarters company. It will have 104 soldiers and a signal company detachment with 55 soldiers, a total gain of 39 positions. Missouri will lose one of its field artillery battalions, but it won't be the 129th headquartered in Maryville with detachments in Chillicothe and Albany. However, the 129th will lose its canons. The unit will start learning to operate the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System - the Army's newest multiple launch rocket equipment, said Col. Dennis Sandbothe, the director of operations. Each mobile truck can carry six rockets that can be rapidly programmed for multiple targets. Current plans call for the 129th Field Artillery to become the first Army National Guard unit to have the new rocket system in about two years, Mr. Sidwell said. The armory in Maryville will increase its authorized strength by 20 to 104 soldiers. The armories in Albany and Chillicothe will be reduced to 72 soldiers. Albany's armory houses Battery A of the 129th Field Artillery and will lose 29 positions. Chillicothe's armory houses Battery B and will lose 46 positions. The 128th Field Artillery, which has personnel located in multiple cities south and east of St. Joseph, will close. It will become a military police unit. An additional 600 positions are being added to Missouri's military police capabilities. Soldiers in both current field artillery battalions will have an option to choose artillery or military police duties because the Guard wants to minimize the uncertainty for individual soldiers, the general said. The other Army National Guard unit in Northwest Missouri is detachment one of the 1221st Transportation Company a unit of truck drivers. The armory will keep its truck-driving mission, adding 20 positions as it becomes detachment one of the 128th Forward Support Company. The changes become effective in October. The adjutant general has received authorization to start recruiting for all of Missouri's new Army National Guard units in June and July. This is another effort to minimize the confusion during the transition, Mr. Sidwell said. Some 1,000 positions will be cut from engineer units stationed throughout the state because of a current excess in that field. Overall the state is losing 500 positions but because of current manning levels, which are at 93 percent of authorized unit strength, there will the potential for more soldiers. Recruiters are working to increase each Missouri unit strength up to as much as 110 percent of authorized strength. COPYRIGHT 2005 - ST. JOSEPH NEWS-PRESS, NPG NEWSPAPERS INC.. YOU MAY USE THE CONTENT ONLINE ONLY, AND SOLELY FOR YOUR PERSONAL, NON-COMMERCIAL USE, PROVIDED YOU DO NOT REMOVE ANY TRADEMARK, COPYRIGHT OR OTHER NOTICE FROM SUCH CONTENT. IF YOU OPERATE A WEB SITE AND WISH TO LINK TO STJOENEWS-PRESS.COM, YOU MAY ONLY DO SO PROVIDED YOU AGREE TO CEASE SUCH LINK UPON REQUEST FORM STJOENEWS-PRESS.COM. NO OTHER USE IS PERMITTED WITHOUT PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION OF STJOENEWS-PRESS.COM. |
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