Army National Guard First Lieutenant Brian E. Shaffer has been mobilized and activated at Joint Base Dix-McGuire-Lakehurst, N.J., in preparation for deployment to serve in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and the Southwest Theater of Operations. Lieutenant Shaffer is a member of the 1st Battalion, 181st Infantry Regiment, based out of Agawam, Mass.
The soldiers are normally activated from Army Reserve or Army National Guard units from throughout the U.S. They go through a series of in-processing procedures and training classes that prepare them for skills and situations they may face in their deployed environment.
Operation Enduring Freedom is the official names given to anti-terrorism military operations involving U.S. troops and allied coalition partners. Active duty and reserve component members from all branches of the U.S. armed forces have been deployed to support the war against global terrorism outside the borders of the United States. U.S. troops serve in South and Southwest Asia, Iraq, the Arabian peninsula, islands in the Pacific, and Europe.
Shaffer is an infantry officer and has served in the military for six years.
He graduated in 1993 from Shamokin Area High School, Coal Township, and received a bachelor's degree in 1998 from Pennsylvania State University, Middletown.
