GALVA GUARD

Members of the unit at Ft. Hood - November 2003

I have decided to do what I can to keep an ongoing catalogue of news stories and information pertaining to my brother's unit, Battery F of the 1/202 Air Defense Artillery unit. Any assistance in pointing out pertinent news is appreciated. Its not a whole lot of effort and I hope this resource can be of use to those who visit it.

Unit information

1st Battalion, 202nd ADA - Illinois Army National Guard unit composition
39th Infantry Brigade - US Army unit composition
4th Battalion, 5th ADA - element of 1st Cavalry, transferred to this unit early 2004

First off, Welcome Home. As of this writing you are enroute from Maryland to Oklahoma via a layover in Germany after chilling out in Kuwait for most of the week. Soon enough you'll be back in Illinois. Thanks for all the hard and dangerous service you performed in Iraq. You have all deserved a rest and time of peace. Enjoy it; you've definitely earned it.

Tom, welcome back bro.

Tom called Sunday and, given the overcrowding and long lines I keep hearing about, that was quite a treat. Thanks so much for that bro. In any case, I am given to understand a couple of the platoons have one last big mission to perform. Best of luck to all of you on that, and to the rest of the unit, whatever you are up to in the closing days of your tour.

Because I have a couple links laying around, I figured I'd provide one last random news update to tide you over; probably when you are killing time in Ft. Sill given your internet is cut off, or so we're told.

One article that doesn't do much for you right now concerning the new uniforms coming out later this year. A unit in Georgia gets to try them out first.

I'm not sure this applies to you guys, but here's some info on the Close Combat Badge. As you were still designated an Air Defense Artillery unit, I'm not sure you'd qualify for this one instead of the CIB. Actually, this link from Stars & Stripes doesn't appear to indicate such. If anyone cares to drop me a line on this, I'm curious to find out.

Mike Bowman posted this story about issues replenishing equipment and vehicles Stateside a few days back. Here's hoping it doesn't happen to you guys.

We're all hopeful and wishing you guys the best as your tour winds down. As we understand it, your follow-up troops are starting to arrive and you are packing up your stuff. That is fantastic news.

As good as that is, it is tempered with reports of the recent injured and the updates on those wounded beforehand. We wish you all the best in your recovery. For those still in theater, stay alert, stay safe, and get home soon.

Just as a taste of what to expect, I have some stories (one more) about Battery G's return last month and that of Peoria's 1/106th Aviation Regiment return this past week (here, here, and here).

I still need to scan and upload stories from the Galva News so I apologize for that. I do, however, have info glommed from various sources on the Media page. I am also waiting on any response to the Chronology page on how inaccurate things are there. Any feedback would be nice if you've got a moment.

Hope you all had a safe, happy, and relatively uneventful new year so far in Iraq.

Have now converted all the Galva Guard pages to the new format. A few pages are just placeholders or awaiting better information, but at least the dead link problem is gone. I could use some help hunting down video and getting the chronology up to date. I am also looking to compile a medals/promotion list which I know I currently have in an incomplete state. Any help would be appreciated.