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PHOTO CAPTIONS:

181014-Z-FS713-007: Maj. Gen. Michael Stencel (right), Adjutant General, Oregon, and 1186th Military Police commander, Capt. Richard Smith, pause for a photo during a demobilization ceremony, Oct. 14, 2018, at the Anderson Readiness Center in Salem, Oregon. Approximately 30 Oregon Army National Guard Soldiers in the unit returned from Afghanistan where they provided Personal Security Detail (PSD), to protect individuals or groups of individuals. (Photo by Sgt. Cory Grogan, Oregon Military Department Public Affairs)

181014-Z-FS713-003: Oregon Army National Guard Soldiers with the 1186th Military Police Company stand in formation during a demobilization ceremony honoring their overseas deployment, Oct. 14, 2018, at the Anderson Readiness Center in Salem, Oregon. Approximately 30 Soldiers in the unit recently returned from a deployment to Afghanistan where they provided Personal Security Detail (PSD), protecting individuals or groups of individuals. (Photo by Sgt. Cory Grogan, Oregon Military Deparment Public Affairs)

181014-Z-FS713-002: Oregon Army National Guard Soldiers with the 1186th Military Police Company stand in formation during a demobilization ceremony honoring their overseas deployment, Oct. 14, 2018, at the Anderson Readiness Center in Salem, Oregon. Approximately 30 Soldiers in the unit recently returned from a deployment to Afghanistan where they provided Personal Security Detail (PSD), protecting individuals or groups of individuals. (Photo by Sgt. Cory Grogan, Oregon Military Department Public Affairs)

181014-Z-FS713-010: Brig. Gen. William J. Prendergast IV, Land Component Commander, shakes hands with Oregon Army National Guard Soldiers of the 1186th Military Police Company to welcome them home from their overseas deployment during a demobilization ceremony, Oct. 14, 2018, at the Anderson Readiness Center in Salem, Oregon. Approximately 30 Soldiers in the unit deployed to Afghanistan providing Personal Security Detail (PSD), to protect individuals or groups of individuals. (Photo by Sgt. Cory Grogan, Oregon Military Department Public Affairs)

SALEM, Oregon – The 1186th Military Police Company, Oregon Army National Guard, is scheduled to be recognized in a demobilization ceremony on Sunday, Oct. 14, at 2:00 p.m., at the Anderson Readiness Center, located at 3225 State Street, Salem, Oregon, 97301. 

Approximately 30 Citizen-Soldiers were mobilized in May 2017 for deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (OFS). The Soldiers provided Personal Security Details (PSD), protecting high-profile individuals.

Scheduled to attend the ceremony and welcome the Soldiers home will be Maj. Gen. Michael Stencel, Adjutant General, Oregon; Brig. Gen. William J. Prendergast, Land Component Commander; as well as other community and military leaders.

The 1186th MP Company is based in Salem, Oregon. The unit has often partnered with local law enforcement agencies for training. The 1186th MPs partnered with district and federal agencies to provide security, crowd management and traffic control during the 58th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, D.C., in January 2017.

This unit has previously deployed overseas twice: to Afghanistan in 2011 and to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2004. The company also provided domestic operations support in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 

The unit is comprised of Soldiers from Portland, Salem, Keizer, Beaverton, Lake Oswego, West Linn, Gresham, Monmouth, Eugene, Springfield, Veneta, Central Point, Oakland, Roseburg, Redmond, Milton-Freewater, Ontario, and Nyssa, Oregon. A few Soldiers are from Vancouver, Aberdeen, and Everett, Washington.

The event is open to the public and media is encouraged to attend.

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SALEM, Oregon – The Oregon Military Department is scheduled to sell the Oregon Army National Guard armory in Burns, Oregon, for a fair market price of $250,000. The property is located at 619 S. Fairview Ave.

The Burns Paiute Tribal Council will purchase the property once terms of the Land Sale Agreement are completed.  The terms of the Land Sale Agreement are $225,000 down and $5,000 each year for the next five years. The tribal council approved the purchase last week.

“We are so grateful for the opportunity to purchase the armory and turn it into a wellness center for our community,” said Eric Hawley, Tribal Counsel Chief.

The Burns Armory has been vacant since 2013. At that time, there were only eight Oregon Army National Guard Soldiers living in Burns assigned to a 21-person engineer unit. The remainder of Soldiers in that unit lived in the greater Bend, Oregon, area. In 2012, the unit began conducting drill training at the Bend Armory and was officially re-stationed there in 2013.

Legislative approval to sell the armory was achieved in 2017 as part of Senate Bill 5506 and the sale was listed under terms defined by The Department of Administrative Services.

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SALEM, Oregon – The Oregon Military Department formally dedicated the new Maj. Gen. George A. White Headquarters building during a ceremony, Sept. 26, 2018, in Salem, Oregon.

Photos Captions:
180926-Z-YP317-0073: Salem Mayor Chuck Bennett speaks about the city’s partnership with the Oregon Military Department at the dedication ceremony for the new Maj. Gen. George A. White Headquarters building in Salem, Oregon, on Sept. 26, 2018. The new building is named for Maj. Gen. White as the Oregon National Guard’s longest-serving adjutant general and co-founder of the American Legion. (Photo by Christopher L. Ingersoll, Oregon Military Department Public Affairs)

180926-Z-YP317-0033: Maj. Gen. Michael Stencel, Adjutant General, Oregon, speaks about the legacy of Maj. Gen. George A. White during the dedication ceremony for the new headquarters building named in his honor, Sept. 26, 2018, in Salem, Oregon. Maj. Gen. White was the Oregon National Guard’s longest-serving adjutant general and co-founder of the American Legion. (Photo by Christopher L. Ingersoll, Oregon Military Department Public Affairs)

180926-Z-YP317-0003: The descendants of Maj. Gen. George A. White stand for a family photo in front of items chronicling his past service dating back to the Spanish American War at the dedication ceremony for the new headquarters building named in his honor, Sept. 26, 2018, in Salem, Oregon. Maj. Gen. White was the Oregon National Guard’s longest-serving adjutant general and co-founder of the American Legion. (Photo by Christopher L. Ingersoll, Oregon Military Department Public Affairs)

Photo courtesy of Fortis Construction

SALEM, Oregon – The Oregon Military Department is scheduled to formally dedicate the new Maj. Gen. George A. White Headquarters building in Salem, Oregon, during a dedication ceremony on Sept. 26, 2018, at 2:00 pm.

The facility is located at 230 Geer Dr. NE in Salem, Oregon. Descedants of Maj. Gen. George A. White are scheduled to attend the dedication. The public and media are invited to attend.

“This is a seismically sound, functional and beautifully modern building,” said Stephen Bomar, Director of Public Affairs. “It’s also to honor one of our nation’s and Oregon’s most historic military figures.”

The new headquarters building is named after Maj. Gen. White, honoring the legacy and service of the Oregon National Guard’s longest-serving adjutant general. Until the time of his passing in 1941, White had served nearly 27 years as adjutant general, dating back to Feb. 1, 1915.

Born July 18, 1880, in Long Branch, Illinois, White began nearly a half-century of service to his country by first enlisting in the Utah National Guard on August 1, 1895. After serving in the Utah artillery during the Spanish-American War, he joined the Third Infantry of the Oregon National Guard and was commissioned as a first lieutenant in August 1907. He served on active duty on the Mexican border in 1916, commanding Troop A, Oregon Cavalry, and on Sept. 10, 1917, he was assigned to the newly organized 41st Division prior to WWI. White served in France from Jan. 10, 1918, to June 18, 1919, serving both with the 41st Division and General Headquarters of the American Expeditionary Force, serving on the staff of General John J. Pershing.  

General White was one of four officers credited with founding the America Legion while in France and became the first vice-commander and adjutant while the American troops were still overseas.

He was a graduate of the Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1926, and the Army War College, Washington, D.C. in 1928. White was awarded by the President of France as Chevalier, Ordre De l’Étoile Noire (Knight, Order of the Black Star) and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.

In his professional life, White first started working for the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the age of 16. When White moved to Portland he worked as a journalist, and became a member of the editorial staff for The Oregonian. He later married Henrietta Diana Fletcher and they had two children.

The 41st Division was ordered into federal service to prepare for World War II on September 16, 1940. White led his troops successfully through training maneuvers in California and war games in western Washington, but died on November 23, 1941, after becoming ill.

“General White possessed, as few men did, an ever abiding love for his fellow men and an unflagging devotion for his country. Wherever the 41st Division may go, there also will he go in spirit,” said Lt. Col. John T. Murray, with the publishing of Official Order Number 31 shortly after White’s death.

In 1954, he was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal of the American Legion.

The new Oregon National Guard headquarters facility is 55,078 square-feet and is situated on an 8.1-acre parcel adjacent to the Anderson Readiness Center on State Street. With a total financial cost of $26 million, this Military Construction (MILCON) project is a combination of federal ($19.3 million) and state ($6.7 million) funding. The project was awarded in July 2016 to Fortis Construction Company and SERA Architects. Construction commenced in May 2017 and occupancy began in July 2018.

Facility construction meets Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold and State Energy Efficient Design (SEED) requirements. The facility is designed to ensure operational flexibility, reduce operations and maintenance costs, and will allow for future expansion. In addition, the building will meet seismic Essential Facility requirements for immediate use in emergency response following a seismic event.

The Oregon Military Department’s purpose is to administer, house, equip and train the Oregon National Guard - a ready force to support the governor and a reserve force to the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army. The Oregon National Guard has a long tradition and history dating back to 1843. The National Guard is found in both the U.S. Constitution and the Oregon Constitution. The tradition and history of the Oregon National Guard was grounded on the basis of its motto, "When we are needed, we are there." Nearly 8,000 Soldiers and Airmen currently serve in the Oregon National Guard throughout the state, ready to respond to any contingency, natural or man-made, at home or abroad.

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The Oregon Military Department will be hosting an event in honor of National Public Lands Day at Biak Training Center located at 2899 E 126 Highway, Redmond, Oregon from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Friday, September 21. 

The Oregon Military Department Environmental Branch was awarded a grant through the National Environmental Education Foundation and Department of Defense Legacy Resource Management Program to fund the event.  The theme for National Public Lands Day, 2018, is natural resource resilience and restoration. In this spirit, the event will focus on the importance of pollinator species and creating habitat for them to live in and will include a presentation on pollinator species, a hands-on bat house building workshop in the morning and a site clean-up activity in the afternoon.

Participants will include the Oregon National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program cadets and local home-school organizations. National Public Lands Day helps ensure people of all ages and abilities connect with public lands for recreation, hands-on learning and community building. The Oregon Military Department looks forward to hosting this event, continuing our role in environmental stewardship, and keeping our training lands sustainable for the future.

For more information please contact Valerie Arkell, Natural Resource Specialist, at 503-584-3198 or valerie.j.arkell.nfg@mail.mil.

Captions:

Cadet Jacob Becker stands in the foreground during clean up efforts coinciding with National Public Lands Day, Sept. 29.  Cadet Brendon Coleman picks up a piece of trash in the background on the right side of the photo.  After nearly six hours of work the nearly 120 cadets picked up several dumpster loads of debris from BLM land near Bend, Ore.