From National Guard
BISMARCK, N.D. - With 54,341 work days completed, the North Dakota National
Guard's spring 2009 flood operations support to communities officially ended
at 3 p.m. Wednesday, (Jun 24th) when the final contingent of Guardsmen left their
station at the Jamestown Fire Department. The situation has stabilized enough
that military support is no longer needed.

"The contributions by our National Guard during our state's recent flood
fight have been outstanding," said Gov. John Hoeven. "Their success was the
result of months of careful planning, hard work and effective cooperation all
around. We are all proud of our friends and neighbors in uniform."

North Dakota Guardsmen first began State Active Duty for flood operations on
March 19. Within a week, there were nearly 2,000 North Dakota Guardsmen and
almost 500 more military members - U.S. Coast Guardsmen and active-duty
Soldiers, as well as Guardsmen from other states - on active duty here.

"It's been nearly 100 days since we began our efforts to help control
flooding to mitigate loss of life and property," said Maj. Gen. David
Sprynczynatyk, North Dakota National Guard adjutant general. "North Dakota
flood operations were a major team effort, and I know that even as the role
of the Guard comes to an end, many of our flood fighting partners - from the
North Dakota Department of Emergency Services, FEMA and city and county
governments - continue to focus on this effort through recovery operations."

The mission began with filling sandbags in multiple locations throughout
North Dakota, but quickly grew to a lengthy list of duties and
accomplishments. Among them, Guardsmen built earthen dikes, patrolled levees,
flew reconnaissance missions, built sandbag dikes, constructed lines of
HESCO(r) barriers to hold back floodwaters, built Rapid Deployment Flood
Walls(r) (RDFW) and manned helicopter missions to carry 1-ton sandbags for
dike reinforcement. They also conducted rescue missions - by truck,
helicopter and boat, operated traffic control points, responded in Quick
Reaction Force teams to leaks and breaches, buried cattle that perished in
the flood, pumped water, salted ice from the air and helped place explosives
to break up Bismarck ice jams. Behind the scenes, more Soldiers and Airmen
planned and coordinated missions, ensured Guardsmen had all of the equipment
they needed, provided medical care, ran payroll, cooked food and facilitated
the numerous local and national media looking to tell the story.

"I'm incredibly proud of our Soldiers and Airmen," Sprynczynatyk said. "Their
professionalism and dedication was continually demonstrated throughout the
operation. I'm also grateful to their employers and universities for
understanding the need and working with us so that our Guardsmen could
perform their military duty without worrying about their employment and
studies."
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Since the terrorist attacks on America, the North Dakota National Guard has
mobilized more than 2,800 Soldiers and more than 1,600 Airmen in support of
the Global War on Terrorism. In recent months, nearly 2,000 North Dakota
National Guardsmen were mobilized for flood fighting missions all across
North Dakota. With a total force of about 4,400 Soldiers and Airmen, we have
sufficient forces available to provide emergency response and homeland
defense.

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