Even as the U.S. prepares to hand over sovereignty to Iraqis this week, National Guard units across America are leaving their hometowns for assignment to Iraq.
For more than 50 years, Guard troops in rural east Tennessee trained for wars that passed them by. But hundreds of flag-waving folks lined the streets under gray skies here Friday to say an emotional goodbye to the 1st Squadron of the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment as it headed off to war. It is the regiment’s first combat deployment since before the Korean War.
“I guess it’s now our turn at last,” said Sgt. Maj. John Ridgell, 54, a grandfather, school principal, church deacon and sports coach who bid farewell to his family.
Four regiments, with a total of more than 25,000 soldiers, are in or headed to U.S. training sites, with Iraq their scheduled destination by year’s end. They will join three Guard contingents already in Iraq with about 15,000 soldiers.
In all, five of these seven Guard units had not seen a combat call-up since World War II.
Pentagon critics see their deployment as a sign of an overtaxed military in which 100,000 U.S. soldiers are being sent to Iraq to replace 130,000 who have been there for a year or more.
Members of the National Guard are not as well-prepared for active duty as regular Army servicemen and women, critics charge. Mostly in their 30s or older, they are not in top-notch physical shape, critics contend, and lack the training for the complex battleground of Iraq.
A survey last December by military sociologist Charles Moskos of Northwestern University found a lower morale level among Guard soldiers in Iraq than among full-time soldiers.
“They are nowhere near the level of proficiency that active troops are,” retired Army Col. David Hackworth, a frequent Pentagon critic, told The Associated Press recently.
A spotty record in Korea
After Guard personnel earned a checkered record in the Korean War, the Pentagon didn’t call them up for combat duty for decades. Now, in the era of an all-volunteer military and with a need for fresh troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Defense Department is turning to the so-called weekend warriors.
The deployment of Guard troops has been playing out throughout June across a huge swath of eastern and central Tennessee, where nearly 4,000 men and women of the 278th Regiment have been leaving home. Beyond the emotional strain on families, their departure has left these small communities struggling to replace their skills and duties.
The regiment’s deployment is expected to last at least 521 days but may be up to two years, according to the assignment orders. At most, soldiers would get two weeks’ leave during that period, commanders say.
Guard commanders vow their soldiers will be well-trained before they leave for Iraq this fall. First stop for the Tennessee regiment is Camp Shelby in Mississippi and then Ft. Irwin in the California desert. In all, soldiers will undergo between four to six months of “validation,” as the Pentagon terms it. Their physical strength and skills will be tested. They will learn methods of enemy engagement, convoy escorting, artillery firing, manning checkpoints and dealing with the Iraqi culture.
The soldiers from Tennessee range in age from 18 to 59, and about one-quarter of them served during the 1991 Persian Gulf war, Somalia or elsewhere while on active duty, commanders say. There are even a few Vietnam veterans in the bunch.
Roughly 10 percent of the 600 men assigned to the 1st Squadron, based in nearby Athens, Tenn., won’t make it through the rigors of the summer courses, commanders predict. Soldiers will train in hot, humid weather and will not live in air-conditioned quarters. Those who are dropped will be replaced from a pool of 100 soldiers left behind in Tennessee.
“It’s unrealistic to think that everyone can make it, so I have plans for backup,” said Lt. Col. William Mark Hart, who commands the squadron.
Commander braces for deaths
Even before their deployment was announced in March, Hart began preparing his men for battle. Much has been learned in the last year about how to train soldiers against insurgents’ attacks and the brutal conditions in Iraq, he said.
Hart has talked with Army commanders who returned from Iraq. He has calculated the odds and is braced for deaths and injuries among the men and women in his unit.
“I hate the thought of losing one soldier,” said Hart, 49, who spoke candidly about the challenges for his squadron. “But it ain’t all going to go all well. That’s part of the deal when you go into a multifaceted battlefield like this.”
Hart is on leave from a Defense Department contractor that deals with possible fallout exposure from radiation accidents. Hart’s father, William, 78, was an armed forces veteran at age 40. After 30 years in the Guard, his son will see combat duty for the first time.
“It’s kinda screwed up,” said William Hart Sr., who served in the Air Force and Navy. “It’s like he should be a veteran now when he is just going out.”
While many of Hart’s soldiers expressed pride at serving their nation, some admitted they are emotionally unprepared and even fearful. Many rued the disruptions to life and family.
Cpl. Craig Kennedy, 41, sold his trucking business and has been trying to console his daughter, Sylvia, 12, who stuck by his side last week at a small armory in this town of 5,500.
“She’s scared I won’t come back,” Kennedy said. “We’ve been dealing with a lot of crying lately.”
A few miles from the armory, Sgt. Maj. Ridgell sat with his wife on a bench swing spending his last night at home with two grown daughters and a 2-year-old grandson, Dylan.
`I’ll honor my commitment’
To avoid the draft, Ridgell had signed with the Guard in 1971 after college. Through the years, as he became a school administrator, he never thought of leaving the Guard. He liked the training sessions and the bonding with the soldiers, he said. Plus the money helped put his kids through college.
At 54, Ridgell figures he could have found a way to get a medical waiver out of serving.
“But I am still in good physical shape,” he said. “I knew this was a possibility when I signed up, and I’ll honor my commitment.”
On Friday morning, Ridgell’s family stood in tears on a rain-soaked street at dawn as a convoy of soldiers in army vehicles drove out of Athens escorted by police and fire units. Ridgell saluted as he left in a Humvee.
“These soldiers will come back changed forever,” Lt. Col. Hart said.
