YAKIMA, Wash. — The mission for this year’s annual training for the Washington National Guard’s 81st Brigade is to prepare for national training in California next year.
After that, the Brigade could be headed to Poland.
A guard spokesperson said the deployment to Poland could come in 2020 or 2021. It would be the first deployment for the 81st Brigade’s 3,600 members since they were deployed to Iraq in 2009.
The deployment would be to relieve existing troops in Poland and had been discussed before the Trump Administration suggested increasing the number of U.S. soldiers in Poland, according to the spokesperson.
Guardsman Major Nicholas Stuart said another potential deployment is not impacting their training over three weeks in Yakima this month.
“The world changes rapidly and so basically our mindset is to maintain readiness and flexibility,” said Stuart.
