City to welcome returning soldiers from Iraq today
Released: November 9, 2006
The City of Whitewater will be welcoming home members of Alpha Company 1st Battalion 126th Field Artillery of the Wisconsin National Guard (Whitewater Armory) tomorrow, November 10th between 11 a.m. and noon. A motorcade led by Whitewater Police and Fire vehicles will contain the motor coach with the returning soldiers who will be leaving Fort McCoy for the return trip to Whitewater.
Approximately 50 members of Alpha Battery will returning to Whitewater after deployment in August of 2005, first to Camp Shelby, Mississippi and then on to service in Kuwait, Qatar and Iraq. While in Iraq, the soldiers provided security and detainee operations in Balad, Baghdad and Hillah.
The motorcade will begin at the city limits on Walworth Avenue and proceed east to Elizabeth Street; then north past Whitewater Middle and Lincoln Elementary students who will be assembling outside the middle school then onto West Main Street; then east on Main past the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus and through downtown Whitewater (where at the intersection of Main and Fremont, the motorcade will proceed under an "arch" created by the Whitewater and Elkhorn Fire Department aerial trucks topped with American flags); then continue onto East Main Street past Washington elementary school where school children will also be assembled; then north on Newcomb to Executive Drive and then one block to the Whitewater Armory.
Upon arrival at the Whitewater Armory, soldiers will be reunited with family and friends for lunch and then all will convene for a 1:00 p.m. ceremony. At this ceremony, members of Alpha Company 1st Battalion 126th Field Artillery will given welcome home gifts from the City, Whitewater Veterans of Foreign Wars Post Number 5470, American Legion Post 173 and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Common Council President, Ret. Lt. Col. James Stewart, will present a municipal proclamation to Alpha Battery Commander Capt. Paul Gapinski.
The 1:00 p.m. welcome home ceremony is open to the general public.
For additional information please contact Kevin Brunner, City Manager at 262-473-0500 ext 200 or e-mail kbrunner@ci.whitewater.wi.us.
- N & P Staff,
