Video by Marshall White

HIAWATHA, Kan. — Members of the Second Battalion, 130th Field Artillery are going to cool down in the desert where Moses once walked.

The temperatures will be in the high 90-degree range but with no precipitation. Also, there will be winds, so it won’t be as miserable as it is this June in Kansas, said 1st Lt. Jessica Walker, a battalion staff officer for the Kansas Army National Guard unit.

Soldiers from five companies that train in Atchsion, Hiawatha, Troy and other Kansas communities will make up the battalion, which has orders to report for duty in the Sinai desert in Egypt as part of a multinational peacekeeping force.

Mrs. Walker is excited about her first active duty mission overseas. She’s already made a visit to Israel as a civilian.

“I’m a geologist, so I get excited about these things,” Mrs. Walker said. “There is a lot of natural beauty in the desert.”

In addition to being able to spend some of her off-duty hours studying the geology of the region, the lieutenant has been a marathon runner for several years.

“I plan to continue training in the desert,” Mrs. Walker said. “I really like the freedom of running, getting the blood pumping and the adrenalin rush.”

Mrs. Walker’s husband, Capt. Philip Morris, commands the headquarters based at the armory in Hiawatha and has already been to Iraq and Bosnia. This will be the couple’s first joint deployment overseas.

Sgt. Allen Vonderschmidt, who grew up in Hiawatha, has been in the Kansas National Guard for 21 years.

“This will be a different challenge interacting with people,” Mr. Vonderschmidt said. He’s done a tour of duty in Iraq, where he earned a combat action badge and learned to tolerate the heat.

“I’m looking forward to the heat,” the sergeant said. “My favorite times to run are between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.”

He plans to train with the lieutenant while in the desert, so he can be a better runner.

The sergeant participated in the annual Bataan Memorial Death March at White Sands, N.M., this year and saw the lieutenant run past him.

“But we had extra weight on our backs,” he said with a laugh.

A number of soldiers have said that they want to train as marathon runners, Mrs. Walker said.

Some soldiers are looking forward to having four-day passes to visit holy sites in the desert, go to Cairo and visit the pyramids.

Following departure ceremonies Sunday in Hiawatha, the soldiers will head to the Great Plains Joint Training Center in Salina, Kan., for three weeks, and then to Fort Lewis, Wash., for additional training before flying to Egypt in September. The soldiers will return in late spring or early summer next year.

Marshall White can be reached at marshall@npgco.com.