Families and friends will bid farewell to approximately 450 personnel of which 137 are Professional Officer Fillers (PROFIS) from 30 installations during a 28th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) Operation Iraqi Freedom deployment ceremony at 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 26 at Pike Field.

Guest speaker for the ceremony will be Col. Ronald A. Maul, commander, 44th Medical Command.

The unit is expected to be deployed for one year. The medical personnel make-up for the deployment will include physicians, nurses, medics, lab technicians and radiologists.

The 28th CSH will provide health service support to the Soldiers on the battlefield. This is the unit's third deployment in support of the Global War on Terrorism.

The 28th CSH was constituted in May 1943 as the 28th Portable Surgical Hospital (PSH), and activated in June 1943 at Fort Meade, Md.

In December of 1945 after the war against Japan, the 28th Portable Surgical Hospital was inactivated and on July 25, 1972, reactivated at Fort Bragg, N.C. as a Medical Unit Self-Contained Transportable (MUST), and later as the 28th Combat Support Hospital.

Lineage and honors include service during WWII in support of the Chinese Defensive Campaign, earning the China Defense and Offense Campaign Battle Streamers, service during both Desert Shield and Desert Storm, earning the Defense of Saudi Arabia and Defense and Liberation of Kuwait Streamers, disaster relief operations in Florida and the Virgin Islands, a deployment to Haiti in support of Operation Uphold Democracy, and a deployment to Bosnia as the Task Force Medical Eagle command headquarters and hospital element for Stabilization Forces 9 and 10.

In 2003, the 28th Combat Support Hospital deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom supporting the 3rd and 101st Infantry Divisions during the capture of Baghdad. Soon after, the CSH conducted split-based operations, establishing Ibn Sina Hospital, a former Iraqi Ministry of Defense hospital, and a smaller hospital in Tikrit, returning again in September 2006 and redeploying in November 2007 after
15 months of medical service.