No local guard deployment until late '09 at the earliest

The 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment will likely not be deployed to the Mideast prior to fall of 2009, Tennessee National Guard's adjutant general said in a Wednesday statement.

"We are confident that the 278th will not deploy until Fiscal Year 2010," said Maj. Gen. Gus Hargett. Fiscal Year 2010 begins in the fall of 2009.

The 278th is based in Knoxville and includes Shelbyville's Company G, Forward Support Company, Regimental Support Squadron.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced Monday that the 278th was one of four brigades that are scheduled to begin deployment in the spring of 2009.

Although possible deployments for some of these brigades will begin in the Spring of 2009, the 278th is still scheduled for possible deployment in Fiscal Year 2010, according to the press release.

The Defense announcement on Monday did not represent an acceleration of the scheduled mobilization times for these brigades, the Guard release stated, adding that Fiscal Year 2010 has always been the projected time for the 278th's deployment, falling under the Defense model for deployment of once in five years for National Guard units.

The 278th last deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III in November 2004.

"The soldiers of the 278th are trained and ready professionals who will represent the Volunteer State in the same outstanding tradition as generations of Tennesseans before them," Hargett said.

The soldiers will mobilize under the current Defense guidelines of a 12-month mobilization to include training prior to the mobilization.

Under the current plan, the 278th would have a security force mission that will include base defense and route security in Iraq and Kuwait.

More than 12,500 Soldiers and Airmen of the Tennessee National Guard have deployed since Sept. 11, 2001.

Currently more than 1,000 Tennessee Guard members are deployed in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.