Between Minot Air Force Base and the North Dakota National Guard currently nearly 600 people are deployed.
"Minot Air Force Base currently has approximately 500 personnel deployed supporting a multitude of operations and contingencies," said Tech. Sgt. Lee A. Osberry Jr., base multimedia manager with the Minot AFB Public Affairs Office.
"Personnel are spread abroad in various regions including Guam (over 200), Iraq, Afghanistan, Southwest Asia (over 150 between the three) and other countries across the globe," he said.
Currently, about 75 N.D. Guardsmen are serving overseas while more than 4,000 remain in the state for emergency response and national defense, according to N.D. National Guard officials.
The majority of those deployed are in Afghanistan and the rest are in Iraq, said William Prokopyk, a public affairs specialist with the N.D. National Guard in Bismarck.
Guard officials announced Oct. 13 that the 188th Engineer (Vertical Construction) Company based in Wahpeton with a detachment in Oakes, received a notification for possible mobilization and were placed on alert. The 160 members of the unit are from about 50 different communities in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. The soldiers are trained in a variety of military occupational specialties, primarily as carpentry and masonry specialists, plumbers and interior electricians. No potential duty location or mobilization dates were included in the alert orders but would be included in a mobilization order if one is issued.
Since the 2001 terrorist attacks on America, the N.D. National Guard has mobilized more than 3,500 soldiers and more than 1,800 airmen in support of the global war on terrorism. For every 10,000 citizens in North Dakota, 65 serve in the N.D. National Guard, a rate that's more than four times the national average, according to Guard officials.