Minnesota National Guard

A national biathlon event is being held at Camp Ripley. The 29th annual Chief of the National Guard Bureau Biathlon Championships start today (Saturday) and run through Thursday.

An intensive effort to help Minnesota veterans find civilian jobs is paying off. National Guard officials say most of the 2,700 soldiers from the "Red Bull" Division who returned from the Mideast last spring have found work.

Houston, we have moon rocks. The Minnesota National Guard has found a few small fragments of the moon's surface in storage in a state building in St. Paul.

Raindrops and tear drops fell on Sunday afternoon as about a dozen National Guard soldiers were welcomed home at the St. Cloud National Guard Armory. The National Guard says a total of 215 soldiers from the 1st Squadron, 94th Cavalry, 1st Brigade Combat Team returned to St. Paul.

The Minnesota National Guard has announced the return of nearly 3,000 soldiers to Minnesota over the next three weeks. They have been serving in Afghanistan and Kuwait during the past year.

Adjutant General Rick Nash says the Minnesota National Guard is getting "unsubstantiated notoriety" over the number of military suicides.

The 10th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan quietly came and went last week. It's the longest conflict ever for the United States. Soldiers from the Minnesota National Guard have been called on to help fight in the war since May of 2004.

A colonel in the Minnesota Army National Guard has been awarded a French National Defense Gold Medal.

Gov. Mark Dayton has declared a state of emergency for 46 Minnesota counties impacted by spring flooding. The order Dayton signed Wednesday allows the State Emergency Operations Center to provide immediate help when those counties ask for help. It also directs the Adjutant General of the Minnesota National Guard to order to active duty personnel and equipment to provide assistance.

Gov. Mark Dayton has chosen former Minnesota National Guard leader Larry Shellito to fill a Veterans Affairs cabinet position. Shellito was adjutant general of the Guard for seven years before his voluntary departure from the position last year.