(Des Moines)– Iowa Army National Guard soldiers serving in Kosovo have conducted armed patrols without incident after the country declared independence from Serbia.
That’s according to Lieutenant Colonel Gregory Hapgood, Jr., the Guard’s spokesman.
He says about 330 soldiers from Iowa are serving in Kosovo.
The Iowa troops include soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 194th Field Artillery, which is composed of units from Fort Dodge, Estherville, Algona and Storm Lake-and the Company A, 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry, based in Dubuque.
The soldiers were mobilized last June, and Hapgood says they expect to return home this summer.
They are stationed at Camp Bondsteel, the main U.S. army base in Kosovo.
Hapgood says he recently got an e-mail from the troops’ commander that everyone is doing fine and the mission is normal.
(Story from the Associated Press.).
