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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Feb. 5, 2008 No. 08-017 731st TRANSPORTATION COMPANY RETURNING TO KANSAS FEB. 7 The Kansas National Guard’s 731st Transportation Company will return home to Kansas on Thursday, Feb. 7, after a year-long deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The unit arrived at Fort Dix, N.J., on Saturday, Feb. 2, where they are going through the demobilization process. They will fly back to Wichita on Thursday, where they will be honored at a welcome home ceremony at 3 p.m. in the Century II Concert Hall, 225 W. Douglas, Wichita. Approximately 180 soldiers of the company deployed to Iraq in November 2006. The 731st Transportation Company is headquartered in Larned with detachments in Hays, Liberal, and Wichita. It is part of the Kansas National Guard’s 287th Sustainment Brigade. In Iraq, the 731st Transportation Company served as a convoy security force – one of the most dangerous missions in theater. As a Company they completed more than 360 convoy escort missions safely moving more than 21,000 trucks loaded with food, fuel and supplies. The average soldier in 731st conducted 58 combat missions. The unit put more than one million hard miles on their Convoy Protection Platforms (CPP). The 731st was the most decorated company in the 11th Transportation Battalion
and was known throughout the theater as one of the elite Convoy Security
Companies, having one of the best Improvised Explosive Devise found and
clear rates of 60 percent which was well above the theater average of
35 percent. -30- |
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