[4/21/04]JACKSON Top government officials voiced their support Tuesday for Mississippians deployed with the National Guard and noted ways other citizens may do the same.

Former U.S. Rep. G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery accompanied Gov. Haley Barbour, National Guard commander Gen. Harold Cross and House Speaker Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi, and commanders of four Guard units as a resolution honoring all of the state’s Guard and Reserve troops was read.

The resolution said that, since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 5,000 soldiers and airmen of the Mississippi National Guard have been called to active service, constituting the guard’s largest overseas deployment since the Korean War, which happened in 1950-1953.

Cross also listed the names of the 11 Mississippians who have died during the War on Terrorism.

“Their names need to reverberate in this chamber,” he said.

Cross said he had been assured by a commander of Mississippi troops in Iraq that morale would remain high there “as long as we know that the people back home support us.”

Every such commander of Mississippi National Guard troops overseas would have a copy of the House’s resolution within 12 hours, and every soldier would be able to read it within 24 hours, Cross promised.

Part of the resolution’s title also encourages “the citizens of Mississippi to support and contact servicemen currently deployed.”

The House’s senior representative, Charles “Charlie” Capps, D-Cleveland, said it is important that Mississippians be made aware of the ways they can contact state troops overseas.

The resolution lists several Web sites it says can be used “to send messages of encouragement and letters to our troops.”

At the Web site www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html, for instance, people may add their names to and search names on a “thank-you note” to U.S. troops. The name list is searchable by city and alphabetically by name.

And, at www.anyservicemem-ber.org, brief comments to members of any armed service may be posted and read.

Among the co-authors of the House resolution were Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, and Rep. Chester Masterson, R-Vicksburg.

One of the four commanders recognized was Col. Ken Rigby, who commanded the 168th Engineer Group of Vicksburg on its 11-month deployment to the Middle East. During the group’s time there, it managed the completion of about 1,500 construction projects in Iraq and supported every U.S. division there, including the U.S. Army 5th Corps, the lead combat element.

Rigby said the Legislature’s support is especially good for the troops who remain deployed overseas.

“Without that support, then the word doesn’t get spread,” he said.

“We still correspond, and we still pass information on to them,” he said of those remaining in Iraq.

The entire 168th, which has about 76 members, was called to active duty for the War on Terrorism. It was the first time the entire unit had been sent outside the United States. The group left Vicksburg on Feb. 14, 2003.

All but about nine of the 168th’s members arrived home in Vicksburg on April 7. The remaining soldiers were to follow about two weeks later.

About half of the group’s members are from Warren and surrounding counties. The rest are from other parts of the state.