Army Sgt. Christopher O. Loring 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.

Loring, a human resource specialist/squad leader, is normally assigned to the 619th Transportation Company, Auburn. He has 10 years of military service. Loring is a 1999 graduate of Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School. He is the son of Anita Loring of Oxford and James Girouard of Lewiston and the brother of Arsenio Santamaria of Oxford. His wife, Hyeran Loring, and their son, Christopher Loring Jr. and daughter, Aliyah Loring, reside in South Paris.