Keller deployed to Iraq

Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Ryan J. Keller has been mobilized and activated at Fort McCoy, Sparta, Wis., for deployment overseas to a forward operating base in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

The soldier is a member of the 111th Multi- Functional Medical Battalion, San Antonio, Texas.

Operation Iraqi Freedom is the official name given to military operations involving members of the U.S. armed forces and coalition forces participating in efforts to free and secure Iraq. 

Mission objectives focus on force protection, peacekeeping, stabilization, security and counter-insurgency operations as the Iraqi transitional governing bodies assume full sovereign powers to govern the peoples of Iraq.

Members from all branches of the U.S. military and multinational forces are also assisting in rebuilding Iraq's economic and governmental infrastructure, and training and preparing Iraqi military and security forces to assume full authority and responsibility in defending and preserving Iraq's sovereignty and independence as a democracy.

Keller is a medical equipment repairer with nine years of military service.

He is the son of James G. Keller of Prairieville, and Jan G. Becnel of Port Allen.

The staff sergeant is a 1996 graduate of Christian Life Academy, Baton Rouge.