Home

History

Mission

Careers

Contact

“IF WE’RE CALLED, WE’RE READY.”

Last month the soldiers of the 341^st Military Intelligence Battalion (Linguists) were activated by Governor Locke and deployed to Eastern Washington to help fight wildfires.  Like all of the Washington Army National Guard, the 341^st MI Battalion is always on call to respond to emergencies within the State.

  Commanded by LTC Barbara Nuismer, the 341^st MI Battalion headed up “Task Force Liberty”, approximately 400 soldiers from the 341^st MI and other National Guard units.  For close to two weeks, the citizen-soldiers put   their normal routine on hold while they underwent intense training and certification for basic fire fighting and driving offroad/onroad military vehicles.  Most of the soldiers deployed to Eastern Washington provided transportation for firefighters from the base camp to the firelines. 

This month the soldiers of the Tacoma based 341^st Military Intelligence Battalion (Linguists), are considering the potential of being activated by President Bush for the use of their Military Intelligence skills.  As a reserve component of the US Army, the 341^st MI conducts intelligence gathering and analysis.  Using linguists with many different foreign language skills, these same citizen-soldiers are prepared to gather intelligence from many sources, including interrogation and electronic signal gathering. 

Historically, the special skills and unique abilities of the Military Intelligence soldier are hard to fill and in high demand by the US military.  This is also true for the 341^st Military Intelligence Battalion, according to LTC Nuismer – “Both the basic requirements and the intense training for Military Intelligence makes it more difficult to fill every position, we typically have openings for both commissioned and enlisted soldiers.  We are always interested in talking to people who are proficient in a foreign language since that can reduce the military training by a year or more.”

Asked about the likelihood of a Federal activation, LTC Nuismer was quick to respond – “I don’t think many in the military yet understand their specific role in the days ahead, but I believe we all know why we wear this uniform. If we’re called, we’re ready.”

Further inquiries regarding the 341^st MI may be directed to:

 SFC Quinton Moffatt

(253) 680-4353 or

1-800 GO GUARD.

If you would like someone to contact you with
more information please visit our contact page