Sixty-nine Maine National Guard soldiers are wrapping up a nine-month deployment in Poland.
They are members of the 286th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion based in Bangor. Major General Douglas Farnham, Maine's Commissioner of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management, says their mission includes several objectives.
“Part of what they're doing in Poland is part of a U.S presence in the Baltics, and in that region, just a basically a show of force and to practice with our NATO partners interoperability, and show that we are ready when the time comes, and maybe showing a little deterrence at the same time.”
Farnham, who appeared on Maine Calling Thursday, said soldiers are expected to start returning home in February. He also confirms that another Guard unit out of Brewer may at some point be deployed to Africa.