DVIDS – News – West Virginia Nationwide Guard celebrated many firsts amid home, world missions in 2022

The West Virginia Nationwide Guard closed out 2022 with quite a few vital accomplishments, together with homeland and catastrophe response missions, deployments across the globe, and sustained activation supporting West Virginia businesses on the request of Gov. Jim Justice.

All through the previous yr, the WVNG maintained an aggressive home operations tempo. From deployment to help wildland hearth operations in Fayette County, the primary in our historical past, to offering rescue operations to neighboring Kentucky, to supporting missions in Washington, D.C. to safe main occasions such because the State of the Union, West Virginia Troopers and Airmen had been prepared and responsive when wanted.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the women and men representing our One Guard household who stepped up in 2022 to reply the decision time and time once more,” said Maj. Gen. Invoice Crane, Adjutant Basic of the West Virginia Nationwide Guard. “We celebrated success on various fronts to incorporate worldwide help, home response, emergency planning, retiree/veteran outreach, modernization and readiness. We’re trying ahead to delivering accomplishments in 2023 to the residents of West Virginia as your Nationwide Guard.”

Important WVNG accomplishments in 2022 embrace:

Greater than 250 Troopers and Airmen served abroad throughout 2022, together with small unit deployments and train help for combatant instructions, NATO and different overseas allies. As well as, Airmen from the WVNG deployed stateside to supply logistical and operational help for Operation Allies Welcome in early 2022.

Numerous WVNG items, each Army and Air Nationwide Guard, participated in workout routines world wide to help allies and companions. Collaborating items embrace 167th Airlift Wing (Train Swift Response/Defender 22/Chilly Response 22), 119th Sapper Engineer Firm (Noble Accomplice 22 within the Republic of Georgia). a hundred and fifteenth Engineer Firm (Resolute Sentinel in Guatemala), and 63 Airmen and two plane from the a hundred and thirtieth Airlift Wing participated in Train Agile Rage which marked the primary time the unit’s new C-130J had been utilized in an Air Nationwide Guard Readiness Train centered on decentralized command and management and distributed army operations.

By the State Partnership Program, members of the WVNG and extra subject material specialists supplied Chemical, Organic, Radiological, Nuclear (CBRN) coaching for weapons of mass destruction/CBRN protection to members of the Qatari Armed Forces in preparation for and in the course of the FIFA World Cup held in Qatar in late 2022.

West Virginia and Peru celebrated the twenty fifth anniversary of their partnership by means of the State Partnership Program. As well as, Members of the WVNG continued to work intently with Peruvian Armed Forces to supply subject material professional exchanges in Peru and held their first key chief engagement post-Covid.

A group of 30 WVNG Troopers and Airmen representing the U.S. group completed fifteenth on the planet’s largest worldwide cyber protection train, Locked Shields 2022, run just about by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Protection Centre of Excellence.

Covid-19 response continued all through 2022 with greater than 550 Service Members offering help to the State of West Virginia. In early 2022, almost 350 servicemembers had been deployed into 30 hospitals across the state offering non-medical care duties to make sure hospital employees had been in a position to concentrate on affected person medical care.

Greater than 300 Troopers and Airmen supplied staffing help to the West Virginia Division of Corrections, Regional Jail Authority and Division of Juvenile Companies.

Aviators with C. Co., a hundred and fiftieth Assault Battalion, positioned in Wheeling, deployed to help Fayette County Emergency Administration and the U.S. Nationwide Park Service with aerial firefighting, marking the primary time that the WVNG had been tasked to supply in-state home response for a wildland hearth in state historical past.

Fourteen Troopers from Firm C, 2-104th Basic Help Aviation Battalion, and Firm B, 1-224th Safety and Help Aviation Battalion, deployed to Southeastern Kentucky in late July the place they rescued greater than twenty folks and three pets throughout their mixed 25 hours of flying.

The WVNG continued its help to the Nationwide Capitol Area by offering greater than 80 Troopers to help U.S. Capitol Police for safety operations and 125 service members for safety on the State of the Union handle.

On the cyber entrance, the WVNG and Marshall College introduced the primary WVNG Fellow on the MU Institute for Cyber Safety. By a partnership with the College of Charleston, the WVNG launched a pilot program to supply cyber coaching to cadets on the state’s two Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academies.

The WVNG accomplished a complete of state train with the West Virginia Emergency Administration Division (WVEMD) in October to make sure continuity, response functionality and collaboration throughout emergencies.

The West Virginia Nationwide Guard’s Firm C, 2-104th Basic Help Aviation Battalion, Aeromedical Evacuation (MEDEVAC) Firm, acquired its first of six new HH-60M “Mike” mannequin Black Hawk helicopters from Sikorsky Plane.

The WVARNG completed second general nationwide within the Army Nationwide Guard Greatest Recruiting and Retention Competitors for 2022 and first within the small state class.

The a hundred and thirtieth Airlift Wing flew 924 sorties, compiled 1342 flight hours, hauled 650 tons of cargo and transported 355 passengers in 2022. The Wing additionally acquired is eighth and remaining C-130J as part of the conversion from H-model to J-model plane. Aircrews from the 167th AW flew 920 sorties, compiled 2,835 flight hours, hauled 4,772 tons of cargo and transported 4,576 passengers in 2022.

The WVNG hosted its first Retiree Appreciation Day, welcoming greater than 100 veterans and households all through West Virginia to a program devoted to veteran care.

William Farkas, a former cadet on the Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy in Montgomery, acquired an official appointment to The US Army Academy at West Level as part of the category of 2026, a primary in MCA historical past.

The WVNG Instructional cap was raised to $9,000 a yr, a $2,000 improve, efficient Jan. 1, for servicemembers pursuing their post-secondary schooling at an authorized West Virginia establishment.

Sgt. Jefferson Gwynn, a fight engineer with the 119th Engineer Co., competed within the 2022 All Guard Greatest Warrior Competitors in Tennessee following his win on the WVNG’s Greatest Warrior Competitors.

The Jobs & Hope WV – WorkForce WV Employment Program (JHWEP), was launched in Might with a goal of providing sponsored job placement. JHWEP has greater than 31 employer orientations, 16 employers/individuals matched, and grants allotted to employers totaling greater than $300,000.

Jobs & Hope and Patriot Guardens, a Army Authority program, skilled 17 individuals of their Garden and Panorama Technician Course in addition to establishing an agriculture-based enterprise incubator in Dunbar, partnering with with KISRA. It’s utilized for coaching on infrastructure together with two year-round business greenhouses, 40+ raised beds, 40-bird rooster coop, meals security licensed processing and packaging area, and chilly storage.

The Future Leaders Program has grown because it was established in 2019 to embody 15 totally different excessive colleges in eight counties. The 2022 FLP regional champions, decided after a day stuffed with abilities testing, had been Brook County Excessive for North Area and Buffalo Excessive College for South Area.