450 G.I.s Mideast-bound
FORT BELVOIR, Va. — More than 450 Army National Guard soldiers from Virginia and Maryland are getting ready to deploy to the Middle East.
The 29th Infantry Division, based at Fort Belvoir, held a departure ceremony Sunday morning ahead of the first leg of the deployment.
The soldiers were training at Fort Pickett in Virginia, and will do another 30 to 45 days of training in Texas before departing overseas.
The Army National Guard said this will be the largest number of troops the division has led since World War II.
The division’s formation traces back to World War I. CANNON BALL, N.D. — Eight people are facing trespassing charges after protesting in the path of the Dakota Access oil pipeline in northwest Iowa this weekend.
The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office said the arrests happened Saturday on a farm near Rockwell City, Iowa, according to the Omaha World-Herald.
Ed Fallon, with the Bold Iowa group, says people who oppose the pipeline are frustrated it is moving forward.
The $3.8 billion pipeline is designed to carry oil 1,200 miles from western North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point at Patoka, Ill.
Hundreds of protesters have gathered in southern North Dakota near the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s reservation to object to the project.
That has led to clashes with law enforcement and more than 140 arrests in the past week.