Some of South Dakota’s bravest have returned home after nearly a year abroad protecting the country’s European allies.
More than 120 soldiers of the South Dakota Army National Guard's 665th Support Maintenance Company (SMC) were welcomed back to the Mount Rushmore State Saturday from a 10-month deployment in Germany.
"Our Soldiers may wear the uniform, but deployments are never accomplished by the Soldier alone," said Capt. Kasey Lanning said during a ceremony. "You were part of this deployment, too."
Speaking at a deactivation ceremony in Mitchell commemorating the soldiers’ return after a 309-day deployment supporting Operation European Assure, Deter and Reinforce, a U.S. military mission supporting NATO allies, Lanning lauded the cadre of servicemen and women for performing admirably – the unit supported three different combat battalions, moved more than 600 non-mission-capable vehicles and completed more than 3,800 work orders for the U.S. military and its partners while overseas.
Maj. Gen. Mark Morrell, the adjutant general of the South Dakota National Guard, who along with Gov. Larry Rhoden greeted the soldiers at their first stateside arrival in Sioux Falls prior to the Saturday ceremony, said the company took on aging equipment, improved its barracks and cleared out old supplies.
"They always leave it better than they found it," he said. It is a story he hears whenever South Dakota's Soldiers and Airmen deploy.
Morrell also reminded Soldiers and families that the work of coming home is not finished at the door.
"Coming home happens today," he said. "But becoming a family again under one roof, that will take time."
Also on hand at the Mitchell High School gymnasium were Congressman Dusty Johnson and Sens. John Thune and Mike Rounds.
The 665th Support Maintenance Company is assigned to the 152nd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 109th Regional Support Group.
Lanning thanked the Mitchell-area VFW for its show of support for the soldiers while they were away, hosting a pancake feed as the Soldiers left South Dakota in November 2025 before continuing to send care packages throughout the deployment. She also thanked the businesses, schools and 4-H clubs that sent cards and letters as well, saying they "kept our Soldiers connected to home."
"Those packages may have seemed like small gestures," she said. "But to Soldiers living thousands of miles from home, they meant a great deal."
