Clarion Ledger Article On 150th ... Way To Go Guys & Gals!

Mississippi Guard praised for capturing insurgents
By Holbrook MohrThe Associated PressA group of Mississippi Army National Guard soldiers in Iraq is being credited with the capture of more than 100 suspected insurgents in raids that also yielded explosives, rockets and ammunition, the Department of Defense says.
The soldiers from the 150th Engineer Battalion, 155th Brigade Combat Team captured the insurgents during sweeps last week near Owesat, Iraq, just south of Baghdad, according to a news release from Maj. Erby Montgomery, a public affairs officer for the 155th.Montgomery said the soldiers also seized a weapons cache that included 186 mortar rounds, 65 hand grenades, 500 pounds of explosives, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons and ammunition."Some from brigade have said that this was one of the single biggest, if not the biggest, raids in Iraq," Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Kelly said in an e-mail from Iraq. "Over 100 insurgents in one single mission wasn't that bad ... and the boys from Mississippi did it."Kelly said no soldiers were wounded during the operations, even though a five-ton armored vehicle was disabled by a roadside bomb. He praised the teamwork among the soldiers from several different companies that make up the 155th."Everyone was involved in this mission and they did an outstanding job," Kelly said.The 155th Brigade Combat Team is made up of 3,500 Mississippi Guard soldiers from 49 communities in the state and others from throughout the country. The 150th Engineer Battalion, which is part of the 155th Brigade Combat Team, is headquartered in Meridian, with companies out of Lucedale, Carthage and Okolona. The soldiers are assigned to the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force.The 155th trained at Camp Shelby south of Hattiesburg and spent a month of desert warfare training at Fort Irwin in California's Mojave Desert before being deployed to Iraq in January.Thirteen members of the 155th have died during the deployment.