News: Medford (Military – 4 Mar. 2010)

Poster: Robert Lipprandt

Email: bob@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

----Source: The Star News (Medford, Taylor Co., Wisconsin) Thursday, March 4, 2010, online edition

Guard unit send-off set for March 6

 The Medford based 723rd Sapper Company will say farewell to the community on March 6 at 10 a.m. with a ceremony at the Medford Area Middle School gymnasium. The company is deploying to Iraq.

The 723rd is part of the larger 724th Engineer Battalion, which will see approximately 400 members deployed from units in Medford, Chippewa Falls, Hayward, Spooner and Superior. The Medford unit has been reorganized in recent years into a sapper company after a 2003-04 deployment to Iraq as Company A, 724th Engineer Battalion.

Medford has hosted an armory and Wisconsin National Guard unit since 1949. The unit began as an engineer company, but was reorganized as an armored unit in the late 1950s. It was called up in 1962 during the Berlin Crisis and served a year on active duty at Fort Lewis, Wash. It was later reorganized back into Company A.