NATIONAL GUARD Cyber Protection Team mobilizing for deployment

MADISON, Wis. — More than 20 Soldiers from the Wisconsin National Guard’s Detachment 1 of the 176th Cyber Protection Team will mobilize this fall to federal service.

The Madison-based unit will deploy to Fort Meade, Maryland for approximately a year as part of a long-planned mobilization in support of U.S. Cyber Command and Cyber National Mission Force requirements.

The unit, which formed in late 2015, will be embarking on its first federal deployment.

The unit’s deployment comes amidst a historic period for the Wisconsin National Guard as the organization continues the largest sustained domestic mobilization in its history and an active year of overseas deployments.

Several units returned in recent months from overseas deployments including more than 150 Soldiers from the 829th Engineer Company, who returned to Wisconsin in September after a yearlong mobilization that spanned several countries across the Middle East and Afghanistan. The 32nd “Red Arrow” Infantry Brigade Combat Team Headquarters returned in August from a deployment to Ukraine after serving as the headquarters element for training advisors to the Ukrainian military. Another 400 Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 128th Infantry returned from Afghanistan in waves over the course of the spring and summer.

Meanwhile, the 924th Engineer Facilities Detachment remains deployed to Kuwait, and the 1967th Contracting Team continues its deployment in the Horn of Africa.

Thousands of Citizen Soldiers and Airmen have simultaneously been engaged in a variety of missions across Wisconsin and elsewhere in a historic slate of missions. More than 1,400 Wisconsin National Guard members were mobilized at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic response operating COVID-19 testing sites, running self-isolation facilities, managing logistics, manning a warehouse and distributing critical PPE shipments, and more. Thousands more have assisted the Wisconsin Elections Commission as poll workers in three separate elections in April, May, and August when COVID-19 fears resulted in a mass shortage of volunteers to staff polling places statewide.

Additionally, thousands of troops have assisted civil authorities in preserving public safety amidst multiple instances of civil unrest over the course of the spring, summer, and fall in Milwaukee, Madison, Racine, Kenosha, and Green Bay.

We welcome your stories! Contact us at [email protected]!