Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, June 30, 2011

A community homecoming ceremony was held for the 734th agribusiness development team of the Iowa National Guard Saturday at the Johnston high school gymnasium after the return of the group from Afghanistan.

Specialist Lucas SMITH, son of James and June SMITH of Mount Ayr, was one of the members of the team.

Serving in Afghanistan, the 734th agribusiness development team was the first-ever joint Iowa Army and Air National Guard unit to be deployed overseas. The team was comprised of approximately 60 Iowa Army and Air National Guard members from around the state of Iowa with backgrounds and expertise in various sectors of agribusiness.

SMITH provided security for the team.

Their mission was to provide training and advice to Afghan universities, provincial ministries and local farmers with the goal of increasing stability and improving opportunities for Afghanistan's re-emerging agribusiness sector.

Following their July 2010 send-off ceremony at Camp Dodge the soldiers and airmen reported to their mobilization station at Camp Atterbury, IN for additional training and preparation for departing for overseas operations in Afghanistan.

While in Afghanistan, the team initiated or expanded six demonstration farms in six different districts, helped Afghan veterinarians treat nearly 40,000 head of livestock, underwrote the planting of more than 70,000 trees for orchards and reforestation, conducted training of hundreds of Afghan men and women in items such as tree nurseries, orchard planting, greenhouse growing, row crop production and basic livestock care, funded cash-for-work canal cleaning projects, launched a range of micro-entrepreneurial projects and mentored key provincial governmental officials.

They served in Kunar Province, Afghanisan, for the duration of their deployment overseas.

The unit is outprocessing at Fort McCoy, WI.

Photograph courtesy of Mount Ayr Record-News

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, July of 2011