When Sean Linn joined the National Guard 24 years ago, there was little thought to ever serving overseas.
“We were still in the Cold War,” said Linn, now a captain in the National Guard’s 891st Engineer Battalion.
Any overseas trips were dedicated almost universally for training.
“We went a few times to Central America,” he said.
Any overseas deployment would certainly have been in a European theater, Linn surmised.
But guardsmen served, by and large, with the notion that any active service would be done in response to local disasters, such as floods or an occasional tornado.
Then came Sept. 11, 2001.
LINN, NOW the administrative officer for the 891st Headquarters Company in Iola, watched the events unfold in New York and Washington, D.C., from a television in a front office of the â¨armory.
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the first changes for the 891st concerned security in and around the armory, in Iola and in the 891st’s satellite companies throughout southeast Kansas.
But as word spread of the United States’ pending military response — part of what was dubbed the Global War on Terror — and as deployments ratcheted up for active and reserve military personnel, it soon became clear that local guardsmen would be included in the mix.
“Nowadays, when somebody enlists, they go in with the thought that they are looking at a probable deployment at some point,” Linn said. “As we go forward with our missions, there’s a very good chance they’ll go.”
Just over a year after the attacks, members of Augusta’s 226th Engineer Company — under the 891st umbrella — were dispatched to Iraq.
Then the entire 891st Battalion and its 600 members was deployed to Iraq for a year in late 2004.
Still today, as many as 70 guardsmen from the 891st remain overseas as part of other companies, in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Most of those 70 have volunteered to go, Linn noted.
THE AFTERMATH of the Sept. 11 attacks also coincided with a massive reorganization and consolidation within the 891st. Before, the battalion was dedicated primarily for “horizontal” construction, such as building roads and doing earth work for other construction projects.
Armories in Chanute, Cherryvale, Fort Scott, Winfield and Garnett were closed in early 2010 and absorbed into the four remaining locations.
Iola kept two companies, the 891st Engineer Battalion Headquarters and Headquarters Company and Field Support Company, while Augusta’s 226th Engineer Company handles vertical construction; Pittsburg’s 772nd Engineer Company deals with mobility augmentation; and Coffeyville’s 242nd Engineer Battalion is dedicated for horizontal construction.
The diversified tasks within the 891st provided military planners greater flexibility as they looked to deployments.
“It’s essentially the Army’s version of ‘plug and play,’” Linn said, as military planners now can set up deployments without having to rely on entire battalions.
The 891st and other guardsmen have acquitted themselves well, Linn said.
“I think those who were active Army and in the Reserves saw that we could bring a lot of skills to the fight,” he said.
WITH THE change in thinking for most new enlistees, recruiting has stayed strong, Linn said.
A competitive ROTC graduates usually clamor for openings within the 891st, which remains at full capacity at about 600 personnel. Those numbers have remained consistent in the 10 years since 9/11.
With the added emphasis on Guard deployments came improvements in military benefits for the guardsmen, Linn noted. The 891st family readiness programs, which support families of guardsmen serving overseas, also remain robust.
Linn also applauded local employers who had to make do without many 891st personnel as they are shipped around the world.
“There’s no way this would work without community support,” Linn said. “I’m sure it’s been hard for the employers, too.”
