DEVILS LAKE — Fifty-four soldiers of the North Dakota Army National Guard’s 835th Engineer Utilities Detachment were honored on Friday at a sendoff ceremony at the Lake Region State College in Devils Lake in preparation of a year-long U.S. Central Command mission. Nearly 400 family, friends and fellow Guard members attended the ceremony.

Addressing the departing soldiers were the commander-in-chief of the North Dakota National Guard Gov. Doug Burgum, U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, Maj. Gen. Al Dohrmann, North Dakota National Guard adjutant general, and Command Sgt. Maj. Eric Binstock, N.D. National Guard senior enlisted leader. The unit was alerted in February and is commanded by Capt. Justin Johnson and the senior enlisted soldier is Sgt. 1st Class Charles Holzer.

The unit will be supporting Operation Spartan Shield, a multi-component – active duty, National Guard, and U.S. Army Reserve operation. The mission is to maintain U.S. military posture in Southwest Asia, strengthen defense relationships, and to build partner capacity. The unit’s specific tasks would consist of vertical construction and utility work to support units already in theater.

This is the first overseas mobilization for this unit.

Including the 835th, the North Dakota National Guard has almost 600 soldiers and airmen mobilized or scheduled for mobilization. About 70 soldiers assigned to Company C, 2nd Battalion, 285th Aviation Regiment are returning from a nine-month deployment to the National Capital Region where 225 soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 188th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, who left in June, are currently serving. The 957th Engineer Company has 125 soldiers preparing for deployment to the Southwest border in early autumn while the N.S. Air National Guard has about 115 airmen mobilized to various locations.