INDIANAPOLIS — More than 500 soldiers from northeast Indiana will not be going overseas in June, due to federal budget cuts.
Members of the 1st Battalion, 293rd Infantry, were scheduled to deploy in June to the horn of Africa for nearly a year, a National Guard spokeswoman said.
A news release said Indiana National Guard Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger was notified Wednesday morning by the Department of Defense that due to a budget shortfall, three Indiana National Guard units will be “off-ramped” from deployments in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The units slated for overseas missions were the 1st Battalion, 293rd Infantry; 1st Squadron, 152nd Cavalry; and Company D, 113th Combat Support Battalion.
Most soldiers in the 1st Battalion, 293rd Infantry live in the Fort Wayne area and northeast Indiana, said Capt. Kathryn Elkins of the Indiana National Guard Public Affairs Office. The battalion has four units in Fort Wayne, one in Warsaw and one in Huntington. It also has a National Guard Armory in Angola.
“More than likely, this will not get turned back on,” Elkins said about the missions.
A news release from Elkins said the missions have been canceled due to a combination of the Budget Control Act of 2011, sequestration and the underfunding of fiscal year 2013 Overseas Contingency Operations requirements.
“The unpredictability of our fiscal environment coupled with the military downsizing contributed to this situation,” Umbarger said.
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