Fort Pickett, Virginia, will support the State Department in providing temporary housing and sustainment for Afghan Special Immigration Visa applicants, their families and other at-risk individuals, according to a formal announcement made Aug. 25, 2021, by the Department of Defense.

The Virginia National Guard is a unique dual-status force with a federal mission to provide a combat reserve for the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force to fight our nation’s wars and a state mission to provide a response force that answers the call of the Governor to defend the commonwealth. The VNG traces the history and tradition of Citizen-Soldier service to the founding of Jamestown in 1607, and there has been a military presence defending Virginia ever since.

Virginia Army National Guard recruiters participated in Lynchburg’s 3rd Annual Heroes Day, a joint recruiting and awareness event for first responders held September 11, 2021, at River Ridge Mall in Lynchburg, Virginia. The event included personnel from Lynchburg, Amherst, Bedford and Campbell Counties, as well as Virginia State Police. 

Virginia National Guard Soldiers, Airmen and guests gathered to remember the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and dedicate a World Trade Center elevator pulley for historical display Sept. 11, 2021, at the VNG Sergeant Bob Slaughter Headquarters at Defense Supply Center Richmond, Virginia. 

A Virginia National Guard officer has taken up a unique post in South America after graduating from the Spanish-immersive Command and General Staff College course at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in Fort Benning, Georgia. 

On her first deployment to Kuwait with the 29th Infantry Division in support of Operation Spartan Shield, Spc. Shenika Marable wistfully wished to be an equal opportunity leader (EOL) for the unit. Army regulations that required an EOL be a sergeant-promotable or higher rank dashed her hopes.

Situations can change in an instant. We’ve all heard that before. But for Master Sgt. Keona Newsom, a commander’s support staff noncommissioned officer in charge with the 192nd Operations Group, it was never more true than on July 27, 2021.

When deployed Chief Warrant Officer 3 Sandra Williams misses her son, Alex, she doesn’t have to do math to figure out what time it is where he is located before calling him. Because they are deployed together in support of Operation Spartan Shield, the mother-son combo not only share the same moon – they share the same time zone.

In the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 11, 2021, approximately 40 Airmen assigned to the 192nd Wing, Virginia Air National Guard, gathered to remember the events of September 11th, 2001, at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia. In teams of up to four Airmen, or individually, they walked or ran a combined distance of 20 kilometers in remembrance of the 20th anniversary of the attack on the United States.

U.S. Army Soldiers are embracing opportunities to support Afghanistan evacuation efforts in every way possible. Spc. Toraj Rozbeh, an Information Operations Specialist currently deployed to Kuwait with the Army National Guard’s 29th Infantry Division, Task Force Spartan, U.S. Army Central, is sharing and maximizing his ethnicity as an Afghan American to assist with building bridges and easing the processes throughout Operation Allies Refuge efforts.

Nine Virginia National Guard Soldiers traveled north to attend a Comprehensive Health and Wellness Leaders Course, held July 25-30, 2021, at the Army National Guard Readiness Center in Washington, D.C. The five-day course brought together more than 40 Soldiers and Airmen from 13 states and territories. The course aimed to equip leaders with effective tools for improving and managing the culture of health and wellness within their states and units. 

The Virginia National Guard’s Virginia Beach-based 329th Regional Support Group Headquarters marked the start of its federal active-duty mobilization with a departure ceremony Sept. 4, 2021, at the State Military Reservation in Virginia Beach, Virginia.