Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Military topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Senate honors Utah National Guard units deployed overseas and hears accounts of engineering and humanitarian missions
Summary
The Utah Senate adopted HCR 5 recognizing Utah National Guard units serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, viewed slides of Guard activities and heard Guard officers describe deployments, humanitarian work and ongoing activations; members praised their service and discussed support for families.
The Utah Senate passed House Concurrent Resolution 5 to honor Utah National Guard members serving overseas and those supporting them at home. Representative Hunsaker and other sponsors presented photographs and slides showing Guard engineering, convoy security, medical missions and community support activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Colonel Craig Morgan and Lieutenant Colonel David Thomas briefed the chamber in a Committee of the Whole. They described the Guard’s wide deployment footprint (Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar) and noted both combat and humanitarian missions, including rebuilding roads, constructing helipads and providing medical care. Colonel Morgan emphasized Utah’s comparatively high mobilization rate and expressed gratitude for troop support and family sacrifices.
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas noted rotating deployments and the retraining of some units for different missions; he also highlighted humanitarian missions beyond the hot zones. Senators honored the Guard delegation with applause and offered remarks about the toll of deployment on families and communities; one senator recalled a local family’s loss and urged legislative attention to supports for service families.
HCR 5 passed under suspension (24 yea, 0 nay, 5 absent) and will be signed and recorded in the Senate journal.
