Maj. Mark Topp, officer in charge of the 141st Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, talked about the North Dakota Army National Guard and the mission and responsibilities of the brigade at the recent Rotary meeting.
Topp is the MEB in Fargo, which has unit location all over the eastern part of North Dakota. He is the full-time unit manager. The part time commander is Col. Leo Ryan of Jamestown.
Topp discussed the mission of the North Dakota Army Guard. Its first priority is to the state of North Dakota and its secondary mission is to assist in the war effort when and where needed. Topp said almost everyone in the North Dakota Guard has been in a combat situation over the past 10 to 12 years. During the floods in Grand Forks in 1997, 2009 and 2011, the Army Guard and Air Guard worked together in communities where flooding was taking place. Last summer, the Guard helped extinguish fires along the Missouri River near Bismarck with the Aviation Unit providing the heavy lifting.
The current membership in the Army side of the Guard is 3,096 members with 795 of those soldiers being full time, Topp said. North Dakota has one of the finest training facilities in the U.S. for training engineers and that is at Camp Grafton near Devils Lake, he said. Soldiers from all over the U.S. come to Devils Lake for their skills training. Topp also said a new maintenance shop being built in Valley City just east of the John Deere plant alongside Interstate 94 should be complete in the fall of 2016.
Topp is a North Dakota native who grew up on a farm near Grace City.
Nick Schmidt provided the welcome; Casey Stoudt gave the table blessing. Selmer Spitzer, former Jamestown member, now a member in Mesquite, Nev., led the group in singing. For a number of years Spitzer taught music at the University of Jamestown. Carrie Orn collected “Happy Dollars” for Rotary projects. Amy Walters was inducted as a new member into the Jamestown Rotary Club. Schmidt thanked everyone for their help with the All State Soccer Tournament at Rotary Field.
Beth Dewald is today’s guest speaker, Warren Tobin will give the invocation, Curt Liechty is the song leader, and Matt Stockert is the sergeant-at-arms.
