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(Iowa) -- The Iowa National Guard is seeing strong recruiting and overall readiness to begin the new year.
Delivering the Condition of the Guard address at the Iowa State Capitol Thursday morning, Major General Stephen E. Osborn said:
"Every mission we execute, whether in Iowa or overseas, is built on one essential foundation - the readiness of our people, our equipment, and our units....The Iowa National Guard ended fiscal year '25 at 99.8% strength and an 82% retention rate. And as I speak today, the Iowa National Guard is at over 100% strength, with 8,931 soldiers and airmen assigned and continuing to grow."
During the speech, Osborn paid tribute to Iowa National Guard sergeants Nate Howard and Edgar Torres-Tovar, who were killed in an ISIS attack in Syria on December 13th along with an American civilian interpreter. Osborn says more deployments for Iowa National Guardsmen are planned, with more than 80 Iowa National Guard soldiers being deployed to Poland this summer to support base operations across NATO in the Baltic region.