Tagged: Louisiana National Guard

Soldiers of the Louisiana National Guard's 205th Engineer Battalion and the 922nd Engineer Company are scheduled to bid farewell to family and friends during two separate deployment ceremonies this week.

More than 150 soldiers with the 205th, based in Bogalusa and Hammond, and another 150 from the 922nd, based in Gonzales, are leaving Thursday.

The units will conduct a yearlong deployment to Kuwait.

The Louisiana National Guard sent high-water trucks to Crowley and Marksville for evacuations, and says units are on standby statewide.

Staff Sgt. Denis Ricou says the 225th Engineer Brigade in Marksville and the 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in Crowley each sent a truck and two soldiers.

He says the guard also brought about 50,000 empty sandbags Thursday to Livingston Parish.

A New Orleans-based National Guard unit dating back to 1838 will hold a change of command ceremony Saturday.

Lt. Col. Steven Finney will give Maj. Ken Baillie command of the Washington Artillery in a 10:30 a.m. ceremony at the Jackson Barracks parade field.

The unit's formal name is the 1st Battalion, 141st Field Artillery Regiment of the 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

A federal jury has convicted a 61-year-old man accused of shooting at a Louisiana Army National Guard helicopter pilot who was providing aerial surveillance as part of a marijuana eradication detail in Winn Parish.

U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley says James L. Kelly, of Sikes, was found guilty Wednesday of endangering the safety of a pilot, committing an act of violence against a pilot and using a deadly and dangerous weapon to forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate and interfere with a pilot.