Local Guard Units Receive High Honors

 

139th MillerSouth Dakota has 42 National Guard units and 12 of them have been given the National Guard Bureau’s “Superior Unit” Award. Of the 12 that have been honored, three of those units are in and around Huron. The 153rd Engineering Battalion of Huron, Forward Support Company of the 153rd Engineering Battalion in Huron and Parkston and 211th Engineering Company of De Smet and Madison are the local units who have been given the prestigious award. The Superior Unit Award is given to units for outstanding achievement during the 2013 training year, for meeting highly-enforced military standards for personnel, training and readiness. To get the award units must maintain assigned personnel strength of 95-percent, complete inactive duty and annual training and ensure 95-percent of soldiers in a unit are fully qualified in their duty military occupation specialty. Also included in the criteria for a Superior Unit award is weapon qualification rates, physical fitness test results and unit inspections. Units in Aberdeen, Milbank, Brookings, Pierre, Mobridge, Chamberlain, Rapid City Wagner, Sioux Falls, Flandreau and Watertown also won Superior Unit awards. The Watertown Unit, Alpha Company of the 139th Brigade Support Battalion was formerly based in Miller and Redfield.