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Tuesday, June 17, 2008 Soldier bound for Iraq By Chuck Sterling An Annandale soldier is on his way to Iraq, where he'll help keep Army National Guard helicopters in the air. Sgt. Ryan Nutter left Friday, June 6, with about 720 other members of the St. Paul-based 34th Combat Aviation Brigade for Fort Sill, Okla. The unit, also known as the Red Bull Division, will train there before shipping out to Iraq. It will be the first tour of duty in the war zone for Nutter, 22, an engine mechanic with B Co. of the 834th Aviation Support Battalion. It's also the first time the brigade as a unit has been sent to Iraq, though some individual soldiers have served there, according to 1st Lt. John Hobot, a spokesman for the Minnesota National Guard. Soldiers in the unit come from Bismarck, N.D; Boise, Idaho, and Helena, Mont., as well as Minnesota. A deployment ceremony was held Saturday, May 31, at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Gone a year "We're going to be gone for a year," Nutter said in an interview just before the unit deployed. That will include about three months at Fort Sill and nine months in Iraq, he said. The unit will arrive at the hottest time of the year, he said, when temperatures are said to reach 140 degrees in the shade. He'll be stationed at Camp Anaconda, a U.S. Army base at Balad, north of Baghdad, Nutter said. "I fix turbine engines for all the Army helicopters," he said. They include the UH-60 Blackhawk, the CH-47 Chinook and the AH-64 Apache. He's been doing that for about 31/2 years after joining the National Guard at age 17 while still a student at Kimball Area High School. He took 18 weeks of advanced training in engine mechanics at Fort Eustis, Va., where he was an honor graduate. Nutter described the Blackhawk as a utility helicopter and the Apache as an attack aircraft that carries machine guns and rockets. The Chinook is a cargo helicopter. The Chinook looks cumbersome with large rotors at the front and back, but it's quick. "That's one of the fastest helicopters we have in the military," Nutter said. It's not maneuverable, "but at the top speed it's the fastest." Nutter and his wife, Jacquelynn, have lived in Annandale for a year, but their ties to the city are much older than that. "I moved to Annandale back when I was in fifth grade," he said, and he attended Annandale schools through 10th grade. Then his family moved to Kimball and he graduated from Kimball Area High School in 2004. Nutter played football for a year at AHS and started at defensive tackle for two years at KAHS. His parents are Wayne Nutter of Monticello and Bonnie Shadduck of Fair Haven. His wife is a 2006 AHS graduate and the daughter of Dan and Stacy Mol. Back to search results.... | ||||
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