The Oregon Army National Guard honored Citizen-Soldiers in a demobilization ceremony on Sunday, Nov. 4, at the Army Aviation Support Facility, Hangar 1, in Salem. A platoon of more than 20 Citizen-Soldiers with Detachment 3, G Company (Golf), 1st Battalion, 189th Aviation Regiment, returned from a nine-month deployment to the Middle East in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. These Soldiers are largely from the Willamette Valley area; Salem and Portland. The platoon assisted with aerial medical evacuation (medevac) using HH-60 Blackhawk helicopters to save lives in support of U.S. and Coalition efforts. The detachment augmented the South Dakota Army National Guard’s Company C, 1st Battalion, 189th Aviation Regiment, serving under the 1st Battalion, 126th General Aviation Support Battalion and the 449th Combat Aviation Brigade. Over the course of the deployment, Detachment 3, Golf Company, flew more than 200 combined hours and conducted more than 80 medevac missions. The unit also conducted numerous training events with U.S. forces and members of the Finnish, Australian, Canadian, Italian, German, Danish, Spanish militaries, among other Coalition partners. Golf Company, 1-189th Aviation, has a long tradition of answering the call to duty. On the home front, the unit conducts medevac, search and rescues, as well as wild land fire suppression throughout Oregon. The unit has previously deployed overseas to Bosnia for Operation Joint Forge 7, three times to the Middle East in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn, to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and to Kosovo in support of Operation Joint Guardian. Another group of approximately 70 Soldiers with G Company, 1-189th Aviation, were recently welcomed home from a Middle East deployment in March 2018.
