Iowa National Guard Announcement

Developing Story: Forgive me for sounding alarmist, but when we get an alert from the Iowa National Guard about an announcement for the same night, we've learned it's not comforting news. We've been through this before as 6 Iowans have already lost their lives fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. Nearly 3,000 Iowans are deployed now and are scheduled to return this summer.

The guard has to wait a certain amount of time before it can confirm casualties and that's why we've seen some of these evening announcements. Tonight's is scheduled for 6:30pm central time. To make that pending announcement even worse, Iowans are already burying a soldier today killed in the war in June. Army Captain Matthew Nielson's family and friends offer their farewells today in his hometown of Jefferson. He will be buried at the Iowa Veterans' Cemetery in Van Meter.

On a personal note, our neighbor, Josh, is supposed to finish his 2nd deployment overseas later this month. I know his wife and young son are counting the days. So are we.

Here's the release from the National Guard:

MEDIA ADVISORY-PRESS BRIEFING

The Iowa National Guard will hold a press briefing on Sunday, July 10 at 6:30 p.m. regarding recent events in the Afghanistan theater of operations. This event will be of special interest to media from central and eastern Iowa. The briefing will be held at the Camp Dodge Freedom Center, 7105 NW 70th Avenue, Johnston, Iowa.