One-thousand Missouri National Guard members have learned, or are learning, that they are headed to Kosovo next year. It’s the largest single deployment of Missouri Guard members since World War One.
Guard Spokesman Tammy Spicer says it’s not one single unit that’s going to Kosovo. It’s soldiers drawn from throughout the state who will be going to an area that is under United Nations protection. They’ll be here for this Christmas….but won’t be back in time for next Christmas because they will be the lead command unit of the United States forces supporting NATO operations in Kosovo. Kosovo faces uncertainty. Leaders of the region might declare themselves an independent nation on Monday. That could provoke reactions from Russia and Serbia. Serbia does not want Kosovo to split away from it. Spicer says the one-thousand person deployment might be the biggest single deployment in 90 years, but the number of troops deployed next year still will not come close to the 25-hundred who were deployed in 2003 on separate missions.
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