Governor Culver visited more than 3,000 Iowa National Guard troops at Camp Ripley in Minnesota yesterday. The troops are training for their upcoming mission to Afghanistan. The Governor said he has the utmost confidence in these young men and women and was very impressed with the level of training they're receiving at Camp Ripley.
O. Kay Henderson at Radio Iowa covered the Governor's visit. Read an excerpt of her story here:
Governor Chet Culver is on his way back from a trip to Camp Ripley in Minnesota. Over 3000 Iowa National Guard soldiers are there, training for their upcoming mission to Afghanistan.
“We are really impressed with the level of training that they’re getting here. It’s really second-to-none in the entire country,” Culver said during a brief telephone interview with Radio Iowa. “I’m really proud of our troops in the Iowa National Guard. We’re going to have an historic deployment of 3100 troops — the largest deployment since World War II — and so I wanted to be here to show my support for them.”
Earlier this month the colonel in charge of the soldiers headed to combat duty in Afghanistan was fired, along with his second in command. The Guard has not revealed why each was fired abruptly for violating military regulations. Culver is expressing “absolute” confidence in the Guard’s leadership, including the man at the top who made the decision to fire the two men.