Red Bull Rising

31/05/2026

29/05/2026

Welcome home ceremonies for 200 Iowa National Guard Soldiers will take place in Des Moines and Council Bluffs on Saturday.
https://www.kcrg.com/2026/05/28/iowa-national-guard-welcome-home-ceremonies-be-held-saturday/

28/05/2026

Welcome Home, Soldiers!

After months of dedicated service overseas, the final major group of Iowa National Guard Soldiers is returning home! 🎉

On Saturday, May 30, approximately 200 Soldiers assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, will return to Iowa from deployment in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, where they served alongside coalition and regional partners in the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

The public is invited to join us in welcoming home 45 Soldiers during a ceremony at the Iowa National Guard Armory in Council Bluffs:

Iowa National Guard Armory, Council Bluffs
🕛 Ceremony Begins 3:30 p.m. Saturday, May 30, 2026
📍 2415 E Kanesville Blvd, Council Bluffs, IA 51503

A separate ceremony honoring 135 Soldiers will be held at the 132d Air Wing in Des Moines. Due to airport security requirements, the Des Moines ceremony is for friends and family only:

132d Air Wing, Des Moines
🕛 Ceremony Begins 12:30 p.m. Saturday, May 30, 2026
📍 3100 McKinley Ave, Des Moines, Iowa 50321

As we celebrate the return of these Soldiers and mark the completion of this deployment, we also keep the nearly 200 Iowa National Guard Airmen currently deployed to the Middle East in support of Operation Epic Fury in our thoughts.

Welcome home, Soldiers. Iowa is proud of you. 🇺🇸

25/05/2026

Laura Belin remembers four Iowans who were killed in military action while deployed in the Middle East over the past year.

21/05/2026

The Iowa National Guard is awaiting the return of the final group of soldiers involved in Operation Inherent Resolve. WHO 13's Calyn Thompson sat down with Iowa National Guard Adjutant General, Major General Stephen Osborn, to discuss the Guard's role in Operation Inherent Resolve. Story link in the comments.

21/05/2026

200 Iowa National Guard soldiers returned to the United States on Wednesday, touching down at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. Story🔗below.

19/05/2026

Designer of the “Red Bull”—still worn by 34 Inf. Div. troops in Iowa, Minnesota, and other states!!!

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On May 18, 1965, regionalist painter Marvin Cone passed away. A beloved professor at Coe College and a contemporary of Grant Wood, Cone helped create enduring depictions of Iowa.

Born in Cedar Rapids, Cone attended CR Washington High School. After high school, Cone headed to Paris with his high school friend Grant Wood. Returning stateside, Cone attended Coe College and graduated in 1914 before studying for several years at the Art Institute of Chicago. While serving with the Iowa National Guard during World War I, Cone designed the ‘Red Bull’ insignia, which is still worn by Iowa’s troops today.

After the war, Cone studied in France briefly before returning to Cedar Rapids. Hired at Coe to teach French, Cone also resumed his friendship with Wood. Cone and Wood went abroad in the summer of 1920, hoping to improve their technical skills. The visit proved influential, resulting in a stunning series of impressionistic views of picturesque cityscapes and landscapes, Paris streets and gardens, and the French countryside.

Architecture and landscape fascinated Cone for the rest of his life. In 1932, Cone and Wood started the Stone City Art Colony. "What would be the purpose of that? Let the camera with its clever mechanism imitate,” Cone once said. “Art, such as poetry, music, and painting, is simply a portion of the experience of the artist. When we actually see ideals, they become real to us. Art traces an abstraction and makes it audible or visual. It symbolizes the whole of life. We believe in something we can see.”