VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Around 70 soldiers assigned to the Virginia National Guard’s Virginia Beach-based 529th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion Headquarters, 329th Regional Support Group will enter federal active service for duty in Poland in January 2024.
This is all according to an Oct. 18 announcement by Maj. Gen. James W. Ring, the Adjutant General of Virginia.
“A combat sustainment support battalion is a multifunctional logistics headquarters exercising mission command for assigned companies, teams and detachments to provide maintenance support as well as distribution of food, fuel, ammunition and other vital supplies,” according to a release.
The 529th will have a departure ceremony in Virginia Beach in January 2024 before soldiers are scheduled to report to Fort Cavazos, TX, for about 25 days of mobilization training before deploying overseas to Eastern Europe, the release stated.
This is the fourth federal active duty deployment for the 529th since being federally recognized in 2009, according to a release. The 529th had previous deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait. They are scheduled for deployment for one year, but could be extended if needed.
“Once again, the experienced logisticians of the 529th are answering the call to deploy overseas and provide world-class sustainment support to critical operations supporting the interests of the United States and our allies,” Ring said, in a release.
Lt. Co. Carlos Maldonado, commander of the 529th, explained what their missions could look like in Eastern Europe.
“As of right now, I’m tracking that we’re going to be pushing some repair parts with this class 9, some fuel, we’re going to be doing some what’s called retrograde operations which is bringing equipment from different places back to the army sustainment model,” Maldonado said.
He broke down how many units they’ll be supporting overseas.
“As a sustainment headquarters we’re going to be in charge of about three to four units from different — either active duty, reserve or National Guard units overseas, so about five to six hundred soldiers,” Maldonado said.
Soldiers within the battalion told 10 On Your Side that they’re excited to head to Poland.
Specialist Connor Hamilton said it will be his first deployment, detailing what he’s looking forward to.
“I think working with a good team, working in this unit, there’s a lot of good people and a lot of good knowledge to go around so I think just looking forward to that experience,” he said.
However, it’s not Sgt. Marquita Snow’s first time being sent overseas.
Snow deployed with the Mississippi National Guard to Afghanistan.
The 529th CSSB was alerted of this deployment more than a year ago, something she told 10 On Our Side was very different from her first time.
“I actually had a lot more time to prepare myself and prepare my family,” she said, “prepare my job even because I am a civilian outside of the uniform, to get ready for this deployment.”
Maldonado said they expect to be in Eastern Europe for about a year.
Continue to check WAVY.com for updates.
