The new Baer Field Heritage Air Park only hints at the legacy of Fort Wayne’s Air National Guard base.A Fort Wayne battalion is one of three Indiana National Guard units that will not be deployed overseas this June because of federal budget shortfalls, military officials announced Tuesday.
The 1st Battalion of the 293rd Infantry Division, made up of more than over 500 soldiers, had trained every month for almost two years to serve as a security force in the Horn of Africa, said Capt. Kathryn Elkins, a Guard spokeswoman.
The 1st Squadron of the 152nd Cavalry in New Albany and Company D of the 113th Combat Support Battalion in Scottsburg were the two other units that had their missions canceled.
Those soldiers, more than over 400, were set to be deployed to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, according to Elkins.
Military officials blamed the cancellations on a combination of budget sequestration and military downsizing.
"I am deeply troubled by the late timing of this announcement and the impact it will have on everyone," Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard, said in a prepared statement. "Our citizen soldiers, families and employers deserve more predictability."
aingersoll@jg.net
