The company was formally activated Saturday morning for deployment to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.  The 235th will leave for Fort Bliss Texas Sumday morning where they'll spend about six weeks completing theater-specific training before heading overseas.  Commander Captain Thadius Schmit says he can't believe the amount of support the 235th has received in the weeks before deployment.

Captain Schmit says, "You know, I walk through town and I see people I don't even know wearing our t-shirts. We've had a lot of people step up and just donate to our family support groups, because they do a lot of activities throughout the year to basically take care of our families and to help them keep their minds off of what's going on."

The 235th is headquartered in Rapid City with a detachment operating in Sioux Falls.  As of Saturday the company says it expects to be deployed for about a year.

Brendyn Medina