INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Gov. Eric Holcomb said he’s asking Hoosiers to keep deployed National Guard troops in their Thanksgiving prayers.
Holcomb and Maj. Gen. Dale Lyles, adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard, visited soldiers deployed in Kenya on Tuesday and Wednesday for an early Thanksgiving meal. Approximately 130 Indiana National Guard troops are currently deployed there to support homeland security in the Horn of Africa region. In an interview for All Indiana PoliticsHolcomb said he and Lyles spent about three hours in the field dining with and visiting with the troops.
“Pretty sentimental for me,” Holcomb said of the visit. “I just couldn’t be more proud. I can tell you that their morale is good.
Holcomb said the soldiers’ tasks take them both inside and outside the security perimeter to assist Kenyan forces. He said their efforts would lead to better security not only in the region, long one of the most troubled on the African continent, but also, ultimately, right here at home. He said that when he asked the soldiers what he could do to help, they asked for more ping pong balls and cornhole bags to pass the time, a request he said he planned to satisfy soon.
“I would just ask any Hoosier who feels so inclined, this Thanksgiving dinner, when you’re sitting around your Thanksgiving dinner table, if you feel so inclined to include them in your prayer list, I I think it would mean a lot, and I know they would,” Holcomb said.
All INdiana Politics airs every Sunday at 9:30 a.m. on WISH-TV.
