Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Zompa has been mobilized and activated for deployment overseas to a forward operating base in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

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.

Zompa, a platoon sergeant with 17 years of military service, is normally assigned to the 1st Battalion, 103rd Field Artillery, Bristol, R.I.

He is the son of Claudia M. Rossi of St. James City, Fla., and Nicholas D. Zompa of Old Orchard Beach, Maine.