Waukesha-Based 135th Returns Home

All of the Waukesha, Wisconsin-based 135th Medical Company is now safely back in Wisconsin following an 11-month deployment to the Middle East.

The unit’s nearly 60 Soldiers returned to Fort Hood, Texas in late January, where it completed demobilization requirements and then returned individually to airports across Wisconsin over the course of several days in early February where families and senior Wisconsin National Guard leaders were waiting to greet them.

During their deployment, the unit enabled Role 2 medical care to patients or casualties by providing treatment necessary to sustain the fighting force. The unit was dispersed across over eight locations at a given time, including Iraq and Kuwait.

Many of the returning Soldiers were instrumental in the early days of Wisconsin’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic – where they set up COVID-19 isolation facilities, assisted nursing home staff, and laid the groundwork for the Wisconsin National Guard to conduct over 1.2 million COVID-19 tests.

The 135th Medical Company originally mobilized for its overseas deployment in March 2021.

The Wisconsin National Guard continues to maintain a high operations tempo with overseas deployments and domestic mobilizations here in Wisconsin. Approximately 150 Soldiers with the Sparta and Viroqua-based 107th Maintenance Company remain deployed to Eastern Europe, and Airmen from Milwaukee’s 128th Air Refueling Wing continues global deployments. Meanwhile, approximately 300 Airmen returned in January from a deployment to the Middle East.

Here at home, nearly 600 Wisconsin National Guard troops remain on duty supporting the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many are engaged in a mission to provide certified nursing assistant support to healthcare facilities, while others continue to administer COVID-19 tests at community testing sites and distribute COVID-19 vaccines.