Illinois National Guard acknowledges NATO's 66th anniversary

SPRINGFIELD, IL (04/03/2015)(readMedia)-- April 4 marks the 66th anniversary of the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, better known as NATO. Originally designed as a mechanism to deter Soviet aggression, NATO existed for more than 40 years before its first military operation. The Illinois National Guard has been a consistent contributor to NATO military missions over the last 23 years.

NATO aircraft enforced a no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina beginning Nov. 22, 1992 during Operation Deny Flight. The Illinois Air National Guard's 126th Air Refueling Wing (ARW), then based at O'Hare Air Reserve Station in Chicago, now at Scott Air Force Base, supported the operation with three separate deployments ending in February 1996.

In 1996, the 933rd Military Police Company was the first of a test group of National Guard units to perform a home station mobilization in November 1996, which eliminated the need to deploy to an active duty base for mobilization training. The 933rd deployed to Support Operation Endeavour, NATO's first peacekeeping operation.

The Illinois National Guard continuously supported NATO missions in the Balkans from 1996 to 2011. Detachment 1 of the 708th Medical Company, the 139th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, the 44th Rear Area Operations Center, and the 106th Aviation Battalion all deployed in support of various NATO missions along with several individuals who augmented units from other states supporting missions in the Balkans.

Over the past decade, the NATO mission in Afghanistan has received considerable international attention and a consistent amount of support from the Illinois National Guard including the largest single overseas deployment of troops from Illinois since WWII when the 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, based in Urbana, Illinois, deployed to Afghanistan in September 2008.

More recently, the 126th ARW supported a NATO mission in Libya, providing air-refueling operations in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn, the air campaign, in March 2011.

In 2012, Illinois National Guard supported NATO, but this time within the borders of the U.S. as NATO held its 25th Summit in Chicago on May 20-21. Illinois National Guard Soldiers and Airmen augmented the Department of State staff to provide support to visiting delegations. The support included reception services as the delegates arrived, transportation and international media support as well as ceremonial support during several state dinners in the Chicago area.

In July 1993, the Illinois National Guard forged a partnership with the Republic of Poland, a member of NATO since 1999. The partnership was originally created to assist Poland with military transformation and acceptance into NATO. The partnership includes over 330 bilateral events focused on interagency cooperation and interoperability. In addition to joint training, since 2007, the two forces have participated in 14 NATO driven co-deployments to Afghanistan.

ng.il.ilarng.list.staff-pao@mail.mil

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