Local National Guardsman disappears before deployment

Update (10-21-19, 12:45 p.m.) – The Josephine County Sheriff’s Office said Mark Henry Hudson has been found safe. He reportedly returned home.

The circumstances surrounding his disappearance have  not yet been made clear. NBC5 News will update this article when more information becomes available.

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Original story: GRANTS PASS, Ore. — “This is not like him at all,” said Mira Hudson, Mark Hudson’s sister.

Mira says she and her family are in disbelief after learning her brother National Guardsman, Mark Hudson, vanished last month.

Hudson was supposed to join 450 other soldiers on Sunday in saying goodbye to loved ones before heading to Somalia and Djibouti for the next 10 months.

“Since he found out, which I believe was about a year ago, he was telling us how excited he is to go to Africa,” she said.

The Josephine County Sheriff’s Office, which declined to comment on the story, says Hudson was last seen leaving his home on Saturday, September 14th wearing his uniform.

That was the same day his unit left Ashland for a month-long training before deployment.

But the family didn’t hear from Hudson again and grew concerned.

“It was three weeks after he didn’t show that we filed a missing persons report because we didn’t know he was missing,” she said.

Mira says her brother spent four years in the Marines before joining the National Guard and isn’t the type to abandon his service to his country.

“He was so excited about it,” she said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

A spokesperson for the National Guard told us Hudson appeared motivated to deploy and they’re hoping he is found safe soon.

If Hudson did leave willingly they say the next step would be a military investigation, but they hope it does not come to that.

Hudson is 5’9″, weighs 210 pounds, and was last seen driving his white Dodge Dakota pickup.

If you have any information about his whereabouts, you’re urged to contact police.

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