NJ National Guard Members Headed to Iraq

New York, NY —

Roughly 2,800 members of the New Jersey National Guard are gathering at Fort Dix for a farewell ceremony before they head to Iraq. WNYC's Bob Hennelly reports:

REPORTER: The first stop will be Texas' Fort Bliss, where soldiers will receive two months of training before heading to Kuwait and then Iraq. By January of next year half of New Jersey's Guard will be in Iraq, the largest such deployment since World War II.

This will be the second tour of duty for almost a third of the citizen soldiers. And for a few, it will be their third. All levels of the state's law enforcement community will be well represented including 2OO police officers trading their day job uniform for green fatigues.

For WNYC, I'm Bob Hennelly.