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San Marcos Consolidated ISD hosted the Texas National Guard’s 4-133rd Field Artillery Deployment Ceremony on Saturday.
The ceremony took place inside San Marcos Toyota Rattler Stadium, where family and friends of over 370 guardsmen gathered before the battalion is sent overseas to the Middle East.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Brigadier General Ronald “Win” Burkett, Asst. Division Commander, 36th Infantry Division and Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm Warbrick, Battalion Commander, 4-133rd Field Artillery spoke during Saturday’s event.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn spoke during Saturday's ceremony.
Burkett said he wishes every American could witness a deployment ceremony.
“What they wouldn’t see when they got here is all of the months of preparation that got this formation to the point, got families to this point,” Burkett said. “What they wouldn’t see from the moment the unit started to anticipate their notification of sourcing were the tasks involved in setting the team, making sure that they had all of the right leadership in place. Those extended drill weekends that focused on mastering the task at the individual soldier level to the collective level.
“What they would see and it’s overwhelming to me, what they would see is the support and confidence of all of our family members that are here today. Our family members and our employers and that’s what makes it unique when National Guard in the reserves deploy. You have all endured the sacrifices of those long weekends. You volunteered the sacrifices of your service members, your loved ones and your employer’s being away as they had to attend extra training. And over the months ahead, you will all share in those sacrifices as your loved one, as your soldier, as your fellow co-worker is deployed.”
San Marcos High School senior Caitlin Hagerty sings the national anthem on Saturday.
This is the Texas National Guard’s 4-133rd Field Artillery’s first deployment since World War II — 74 years since the battalion organically deployed into combat. Warbrick said the unit will provide rocket missile fire in the Middle East as east as Afghanistan, as west as Egypt, as north as Syria and as south as Yemen.
“We do rocket missile fire, that’s what we do and we do it better than anybody else,” Warbrick said. “These great soldiers that you just saw in front of you are going to provide rocket missile fire to support the war front.”
Cornyn said that the soldiers being deployed will be supporting a Combined Joint Task Force for Operation Inherent Resolve.
“No doubt they’ll be counting on their fellow Texans to deliver rounds on time and on target that play a key role in executing a theater-level mission in one of the most important regions in the world,” Cornyn said. “I have every confidence they will represent America well.”
Brigadier General Ronald “Win” Burkett, Asst. Division Commander, 36th Infantry Division, shares a message with the soliders and their families on Saturday.
Burkett said it was huge for the ceremony to occur so close to Veterans Day.
“Our soldiers, they have a lot of confidence in the fact that they know they’re the best trained, best equipped and best led corps possible,” Burkett said. “A lot of that confidence comes because they serve with each other and the pride and the trust they have in one another. But it’s also knowing we come from a great, long line in history of great American soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen that have also served before us and that also gives us confidence and pride.”
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Update: An earlier version of this story said San Marcos hosted the Texas National Guard’s 4-133rd Field Artillery Deployment Ceremony. We have updated it to say the San Marcos Cosolidated ISD hosted the ceremony.
