The mission has changed for a Wisconsin National Guard team that arrived in Afghanistan in early April to work on improving agriculture.
The team's security contingent will be reassigned because the team's agriculture specialists will be merged with a larger Army unit, the Kunar Provincial Reconstruction Team, which has its own protective force, said Madison-based spokeswoman Lt. Col. Jackie Guthrie.
Also, up to a dozen of the team's roughly 60 members will be sent home. Guthrie said the moves weren't unusual. The Army commanders who took control of the 82nd when it arrived in Afghanistan made decisions about where soldiers were most needed, Guthrie said.
"We have no control," Guthrie said. "They don't have to reach back and ask our permission."
"With change comes opportunity," team leader Col. Darrel Feucht wrote on the team blog. "The 82nd ADT will be afforded another opportunity to serve with this new mission."
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About one-quarter of the 82nd Agribusiness Development Team's 58 members were chosen because they have experience in agriculture-related fields, including crop management, veterinary science, hydrology, forestry, pest control, food processing and marketing. Roughly half make up a security force and the rest were to handle administration.
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