9/26/2008
MICHAEL STRAND
The floor of the auditorium at the Masonic Center was filled with troops in uniform, while the seats in the balconies around the floor and the expansive hallways outside were filled with well-wishers, wanting to make sure the members of the Kansas National Guard’s 287th Sustainment Brigade got a send-off to remember.
Outside the Masonic Center, motorcycles from the Patriot Guard and the American Legion Riders lined Santa Fe Avenue, with a host of flags flying in the wind.
The half-hour ceremony included talks from Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Maj. Gen. Todd Bunting, adjutant general of Kansas, while family, friends and supporters listened in.
“One of the best parts of this job is to be commander-in-chief of this great group,” Sebelius said, noting that Kansas guard units in recent years have been deployed to help in the aftermath of natural disasters, to work border security duties, and in war zones overseas.
Sebelius said that national guard troops are in a different situation than regular soldiers, who generally live in the same neighborhoods and for whom soldiering is a full-time job.
“Unlike traditional soldiers, who all go at the same time, these people are in our neighborhoods, but it’s not everybody on the block who’s going,” she said.


Read more about the send-off in Saturday's Salina Journal.

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