Capt. Joel Leflore, center, commander of Battery A, 1st Battalion, 94th Field Artillery Regiment, salutes during pass in review as the 1st Battalion, 94th Field Artillery Regiment cased its colors Thursday morning in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. (Steve Mraz / S&S)
Capt. Joel Leflore, center, commander of Battery A, 1st Battalion, 94th Field Artillery Regiment, salutes during pass in review as the 1st Battalion, 94th Field Artillery Regiment cased its colors Thursday morning in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. (Steve Mraz / S&S)
Sgt. Jon Nelson, left, with Battery C, 1st Battalion, 94th Field Artillery Regiment, rolls up his battalion’s flag Thursday as the 1st Battalion, 94th Field Artillery Regiment cased its colors Thursday morning in Idar-Oberstein, Germany. Prior to casing its colors, the 1-94 was the only U.S. Army multiple launch rocket system battalion in Europe. The battalion will uncase its colors on Aug. 15 at Fort Lewis, Washington, and convert to a high mobility artillery rocket system battalion. (Steve Mraz / S&S)
IDAR-OBERSTEIN, Germany — The last multiple launch rocket system battalion in Europe is heading stateside.
The 1st Battalion, 94th Field Artillery Regiment cased its colors Thursday morning as it said a formal goodbye to Strassburg Kaserne. The battalion is the only unit left on the tiny, far off kaserne near Baumholder.
On Aug. 15, the "Deep Steel" battalion will uncase its colors at Fort Lewis, Wash., and convert to a high mobility artillery rocket system battalion. As of right now, 1-94 has about 270 soldiers in its four batteries, and 70 percent of the soldiers will stay in the battalion when it moves to Fort Lewis.
"Deep Steel is on azimuth and on target — ready to stand tall in Fort Lewis, Washington," said Col. James McGinnis, commander of the 1st Armored Division’s Task Force Iron Sentinel.
In preparing for its move to the States, the battalion turned in or transferred more than 4,100 piece of equipment, said Lt. Col. Tom Matsel, 1-94 battalion commander. It also shipped more than 5,400 pieces of equipment to Fort Lewis, he said.
As an artillery battalion in an Army fighting two counterinsurgency campaigns, 1-94 has had to remain flexible. It deployed to Iraq with the 1st Armored Division for 15 months from April 2003 to July 2004. Deep Steel went in July 2007 as a motorized rifle battalion in support of Joint Task Force-East in Romania. In December 2007, the battalion deployed to Poland for Operation Stable Guardian, and in February 2008, 1-94 was put on alert and ready to respond as part of U.S. Army Europe’s satellite recovery operation.
In his comments, Matsel thanked everyone in the battalion from the privates to the officers and their families.
"I am enormously blessed to be associated with such outstanding soldiers and families," he said.
