293rd To Get Specialty Training

Personnel serving the Indiana National Guard's 293rd Infantry Battalion will be the first unit trained to respond to disturbances in the state.

"We have been designated by the adjunct general as the state of Indiana's special reaction force to respond to any threats to the critical infrastructure within the state," said Company A Staff Sgt. Timothy Taylor this morning. "Anywhere in the state."

Members of Company A, attached to the Warsaw Armory, are part of the 650-member unit of the 293rd Infantry based in Fort Wayne. Members are expected to begin one week of anti-terrorism training at Camp Atterbury near Edinburgh within 30 days, according to Lt. Col. Lawrence Powers, director of civil-military affairs for the Indiana Guard.

After the training period, the unit will be on call for six months, and will be relieved by a succession of other trained units.

The battalion will respond to threats to critical infrastructure or any kind of disturbance in the state.

'This is a new program developed to ensure we can respond to terrorism with a certain number of forces in a specific time,' Powers said.

Members of Company A, 1st Battalion 293rd Infantry, mustered for active duty Nov. 11, 2002, and served the U.S. as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq for nine months. During the unit's yearlong deployment in Iraq, its soldiers guarded air bases, secured supply checkpoints and patrolled areas throughout the southern part of the country. In July 2003 the men were part of the first National Guard battalion in the country, since the Korean War, to receive the highly coveted Combat Infantry Badge from the Department of the Army.

"We've made a name for ourselves throughout the whole nation," Taylor said. "I think that's one of the reasons we were chosen [for the anti-terrorist training]."

In addition to Warsaw and Fort Wayne, other battalion units are in Angola and Huntington.