National Guard Members Deploying To Egypt

About 100 North Carolina National Guard Soldiers will deploy to Egypt this week.

The men and women are scheduled to spend the next nine months in the Sinai Peninsula, supporting the 1979 peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. Captain Matthew Boyle says the mission is a standard operation and has not been affected by the tenuous situation in Egypt and the Middle East.

Matthew Boyle: "They’re supporting NATO in the same capacity that they’ve been for years - Peacekeeping operations, checkpoints, humanitarian aid, possibly training opportunities with the Egyptians; those sort of things."

The North Carolina National Guard has state partnership programs with Maldova and Botswana, and also has soldiers in Afghanistan and Kuwait. This group of soldiers is made up of guardsmen from the Triangle area and Triad.