MINOT, N.D. -- More than 400 airmen and B-52 bombers from Minot Air Force Base who were deployed earlier this year are in the Middle East supporting U.S. Central Command's Operation Inherent Resolve, a combined joint task force operation to eliminate ISIS terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria.
Units and B-52s from Minot Air Force Base normally have been rotating with Barksdale AFB in Louisiana as part of the Air Force's Continuous Bomber Presence in the Pacific. Bombers from these bases have been rotating to Guam since 2004 as part of that Air Force strategic deterrence mission.
Instead, this year the Minot bombers and people are supporting the operation in the Middle East.
This is the first time in 12 years the base bombers were deployed to the Middle East for combat operations and other bomber units are rotating for the Guam mission.
Members of the 23rd Bomb Squadron, other base personnel and B-52s will return to Minot AFB soon. Members of the base's other bomb squadron, the 69th, other base personnel and B-52s will replace them in the Middle East.
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Many people from Minot AFB are deployed to Southwest Asia and other places all over the world and those deployments are constantly changing, said Lt. Col. Jamie Humphries, chief of Public Affairs at Minot Air Force Base.
