LAWTON, Okla. --National Guard troops from West Virginia and nine other states are being deployed to Iraq to conduct aviation operations.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and other dignitaries participated in Monday's deployment ceremony at Fort Sill in Oklahoma.

The brigade-sized combat aviation unit known as Task Force 34 has 2,700-plus National Guards troops from the states of Minnesota, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, New York, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia and Oklahoma.

The unit also will take an active-duty attack helicopter battalion from Germany to Balad, Iraq. There it will conduct aviation operations in support of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq mission to maintain security.

The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 5, 2008