FAMILY PROGRAM OFFICE

March 15, 2004, Volume 1, Issue 52

      https://www.guardfamily.org/            https://www.guardfamilyyouth.org/

Index of Articles

March 15, 2004, Volume 1, Issue 52

READINESS…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Army Now Relying More on Guard, Reserves

LocalsTraining for Combat

Vermont, New Hampshire Guard Members Get Ready for War

Army Retraining Soldiers To Meet Its Shifting Needs

Louisiana Guard Transformation

Maryland Guard Transformation

DEPLOYMENT…………………………………………………………………………………………… 14

Wolfowitz Addresses Guard, Reserve Deployment Concerns

Families Get Ready for Guard deployment  

National Guard deployments affect many Tennessee families

Wives Write Love Letters andat Least One Soldier Has Second Thoughts as California Guardsmen Head for Dutyin Iraq

Spread ThinGlobally, Army Calls on Same Units for Back-to-Back Combat Tours in Iraq

GUARD IN IRAQ………………………………………………………………………………………… 23

Guardsmen Battled on Different Fronts

Milestone for Maine Soldiers

Guard GetsBigger Role In Iraq 

Guard UnitPreparing To Go Home Delayed In Iraq

REUNION…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 31

Guard Troops Trade Hostile Iraq for a Warm Welcome Home             

Home at Last

Soldier Comes Home to Two-Thirds the Wife

FAMILY SUPPORT: RETURN ISSUES……………………………………………………….. 35

Family Readiness Groups Learn About Resource to Help with Return Problems

BENEFITS…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 36

Army Promises To Reduce Medical Holds For Reservists

Troops Get Federal Tax BreakFor Combat Zone Service

FORCE STRUCTURE………………………………………………………………………………….. 39

Restructuring the National GuardSystem

Balanced Guard

GENERAL……………………………………………………………………………… 42     

Minister Gets Support After Family Deaths 

NortheasternIndiana Recruiters Say New Recruits Keep Coming

READINESS

March 7, 2004 Sunday

Army Now Relying More on Guard, Reserves

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

The warning order went out from Washington this week to threeenhanced brigades of the Army NationalGuard. ”Get ready to go to Iraq late this year or early next.”

The Department of Defense also alerted 1,000 members of the42nd Infantry Division headquarters from New York state that they would be thefirst Guard headquarters of its size to be tapped for duty in Iraq. Thatamounts to a total of 18,000 citizen soldiers.

Since the events of 9/11 changed the world, the National Guard and Reserves have beencarrying a heavy load in deployments to both peacekeeping missions in Bosniaand Kosovo and combat duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, and this isn’t going tochange anytime soon.

Nearly half – 46 percent – of the 110,000 troops now rotatinginto Iraq for a one-year tour of duty are Reserves and National Guard.

With the active duty Army skinned back to only 10 divisionsand a permanent strength of 480,000, there is no way all the missions the Armyhas been assigned around the world could be carried out without the Reservesand National Guard.

Even as troops fan out on tough and deadly missions, thePentagon is moving swiftly to reorganize the National Guard, streamlining an antiquated command structure thatwas designed for mass mobilization for a world war.

The Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, isdetermined to modernize and change the NationalGuard and make proper use of it. In return the Army would guarantee that a National Guard unit will not spend morethan 12 months on active duty during a five-year period.

The number of enhanced Guard brigades will be increased fromthe present 15 to 22, and they will be trained and equipped to mirror the newmodular Army brigades. This will be achieved by converting excess artillerybattalions and air defense battalions into infantry units. Other Guardbattalions will be converted to needed specialties such as military police.

Even as this is under way, Schoomaker and the Army staff areworking to pull units critically needed in the early days of a deployment forcombat into the active duty Army. This includes such specialties asport-opening units and civil-military affairs units. Defense Secretary DonaldH. Rumsfeld has ordered the Army to balance the force in such a way that Guardand Reserve units would not have to be called up during the first 30 days ofany combat operation.

The Army Guard and Reserves, totaling 555,000 troops,outnumber the active duty Army. Army leaders know that these part-time soldierscost almost as much as active duty soldiers, and they are determined to gettheir money’s worth out of them.

Army leaders hope that by making better use of a modernizedArmy National Guard and ArmyReserve, and squeezing new combat soldier positions from a transformed activeduty force, they can avoid any costly permanent increases in the size of theactive Army.

Schoomaker believes privatization of soldier office jobs willrecapture 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers for combat duty. He also plans to reducethe number of soldiers – now 75,000-plus – who are in movement at any giventime, such as transferring, going to or from schools, or entering or leavingservice. He believes that number can be reduced by at least 15,000 soldiers,leaving them in their units doing the jobs they were hired to do.

With those 30,000 recaptured positions and the 30,000additional troops approved by Rumsfeld as a temporary four-year increase inArmy strength, the Army chief believes he can get by without a large permanentincrease in the force, which would cost billions and be extremely difficult tofinance in future budgets.

Schoomaker hopes that the current high level of deployments inAfghanistan and Iraq represents a peak, not a plateau. If the future turns outto be just as busy as the present in the need for armed might, then the UnitedStates may well need a bigger Army to do its business. If that is the case,Schoomaker has told Congress and his bosses in the Department of Defense thathe will come back and say so and ask for the troops needed.

Joseph L. Galloway is the senior military correspondent forKnight Ridder Newspapers and co-author of the national best-seller ”We WereSoldiers Once … and Young.” Readers may write to him at: Knight RidderWashington Bureau, 700 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045.

March 8, 2004 Monday

LocalsTraining for Combat

By Edward Lee Pitts

Themuddy woods of North Georgia are a long way from the desert sands of the MiddleEast.

But for several hundred Southeast Tennessee National Guard soldiers recently put onalert status for possible deployment to Iraq, the weekend’s Catoosa Countydrills took on a new meaning.

About 4,000 guardsmen from the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment,with units in about 30 armories including Cleveland, Athens and Sweetwater,Tenn., are among 18,000 guardsmen nationwide waiting for orders. Now they arepreparing for what they are told could be 12-month foreign tours.

During an anxiety-heightened regular weekend guard duty at asprawling military complex south of Ringgold, Ga., soldiers of the 278th saidfighting is what they are trained to do, and they are ready.

“Right now we don’t know for sure if we are going, whenwe are going and what the mission is,” said Capt. Mitch Murray,administrative officer of the 278th’s 1st Squadron based in Athens, Tenn.

The 278th, the largest NationalGuard unit in Tennessee, is the only enhanced cavalry regiment in the National Guard and one of only two inthe U.S. Army. It operates tanks and armored personnel carriers such as theBradley Fighting Vehicle.

Capt. Dale Bradley, commander of the 278th’s Cleveland,Tenn.-based Troop A, said it was business as usual over the weekend despite thealert status. The troop members — nuclear physicists, lawyers, engineers,police officers and teachers — left day jobs behind to train on the advancedweaponry of 26-ton Bradleys and 70-ton tanks. They practiced until 3 a.m.Friday and got an early start Saturday, shattering the image of guardsmen asmerely weekend warriors, Capt. Bradley said.

“We wear the same U.S. Army patch on our chest as theregular Army does,” Capt. Bradley said.

Capt. Murray said the regiment is a reconnaissance andsurveillance force usually charged with maintaining close contact with theenemy. The unit’s mission means operating alone for up to 72 hours as much as100 kilometers from the main fighting force.

“The purpose of these vehicles is to defend andkill,” he said. “So it gets real serious when the guys put theuniform on. We are the eyes and ears of the commander. We go find the enemy’sdefenses. Or if we are on the defensive, our job is to keep them from gettingthrough.”

Capt. Bradley said half the regiment  volunteered for regular duty before the war in Iraq last year,proving the guardsmen are ready to serve.

“We were told they had all the regiments they needed sowe couldn’t go anywhere,” Capt. Bradley said. “We are here out of asense of duty when we could be playing golf.”

Capt. Murray said he is not surprised the regiment is beingalerted now rather than during the actual war. He said the 278th’s expertise atworking independently and reacting to fast-changing situations close to theenemy is a perfect fit for the unpredictable attacks the military faces in theMiddle East.

“We are used to looking out for things that don’t belongor are just a little off,” Capt. Murray said.

Military leaders are learning the civilian mindset in reserveforces is best suited for nation building, he said.

“They found the NationalGuard, not the regular soldier, is actually better at the stabilizingmethods,” he said. “We come at it, not as an Army guy, but as aplumber, electrician or policeman.”

On Saturday, about 360 guardsmen from Southeast Tennessee keptbusy running practice mission scenarios using a high-tech laser feedback system.

Cpl. Aaron Scott, a Cleveland engineer, said the regimenttrains about 30 days a year on the complex equipment their regular Armycounterparts use 365 days a year.

While these soldiers fine-tuned their teamwork on the massiveBradleys, others in the regiment sharpened their individual weapon skills atthe firing range. Some soldiers crammed in refresher classes on heavy machinegun assembly, land navigation and vehicle maintenance.

“Anytime you stay away too long, it takes time to getback into the swing of things,” said Sgt. 1st Class Kendall West, aregular Army soldier from Fort Knox here to observe the training. “Butthese guys know what they are doing.”

Capt. Murray said April’s drill will focus on completing thepaperwork needed when soldiers face a possible mobilization. The soldierreadiness packet includes birth certificates, wills, power of attorney, lifeinsurance, emergency notifications, physicals and a full series of mouthX-rays.

Cpl. Scott said their hard training may be put to good use. Buthe and his wife have yet to figure out how to explain the possible deploymentto their 5-year-old son.

Pfc. Steven Hammersmith, 19, who earns $187 before taxes foreach drill weekend, said the excitement is greater for the younger soldiers.

“I grew up playing army as a kid, so I might as well doit for real now,” the Cleveland resident said. “As a bachelor thereis nothing holding me back. I want to go over there for the experience.”

Pfc. Gary Simonds, 21, of Cleveland, said stories he heard asa young boy of his grandfather’s two tours as a gunner in Vietnam made servingin combat a lifelong dream.

However, hearing the eagerness of his young men, Capt. Murraywas quick to teach them a lesson they may soon learn first-hand.

“There are no heroes, fellows,” Capt. Murray toldthe privates. “If we go over, there are no heroes. Most heroes aredead.”

March 7, 2004, Sunday, BC cycle

Vermont, New Hampshire Guard Members Get Ready forWar

By Wilson Ring, Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: Fort Dix,N.J.

Groups of about 15 Vermont Army National Guard soldiers climbed into three Humvees, test firedtheir heavy weapons and then set out to deliver humanitarian aid to Iraqicivilians.

Over and over on Thursday, teams of Vermonters rolled to astop after spotting a roadside bomb, fought off an ambush and then dealt withunarmed, Arabic speaking civilians swarming over their vehicles.

“This is as close as we’ll get to what we’ll be doing outthere,” said Frank Cannella of Stratton. The 40-year-old cardiactechnician joined the National Guardtwo years ago in the aftermath of Sept. 11, years after serving in the militaryas a younger man.

Thursdaywas the final day of field training for the soldiers of the Williston,Vt.-based 1st Battalion of the 86th Field Artillery Regiment. Colleagues from aNew Hampshire company were training at the same time elsewhere at Fort Dix.

On Friday the Vermont group was “validated,” meaningthe training was complete and they were entitled to put on the desertcamouflage uniforms they will wear overseas.

The army won’t be precise about when the Vermonters areleaving New Jersey other than to say “within a 24-hour window” ofSunday. The soldiers will first be flown to Kuwait and then, after additionaltraining that could run from several days to several weeks, into Iraq.

“In the back of your mind you’re scared, but there’s someexcitement, too,” said Michael Kelley, 32, of Orange a full-timeguardsman.

“As you get close to the mission, you feel it more,”said Staff Sgt. Mark Cyr, 42, of Barre.

While the Vermonters were winding up their training, elsewhereat Fort Dix about 180 soldiers from the Manchester, N.H.-based Company C, ofthe 3rd Battalion of the 172 Infantry Regiment (Mountain) are going throughsimilar training. The New Hampshire soldiers are due to leave New Jersey laterthis month.

Once overseas the two northern New England units are expectedto serve near one another.

Last month, another group of about 180 New Hampshire soldiersleft Fort Dix for Kuwait. They are now in Iraq, said New Hampshire National Guard spokesman Capt. GregHeilshorn.

“It’s a historic time,” Heilshorn said. “Thisis the largest mobilization of (New Hampshire guard) soldiers since World WarII.”

There aren’t as many Vermonters on active duty as there arefrom New Hampshire, but that could change.

As the United States prepares to begin its second year inIraq, the Pentagon is relying more heavily than ever on National Guard and reserve troops to replace the active dutysoldiers, some of whom have been in Iraq since before the war began.

The Vermonters are focused on learning their jobs.

“You’d expect to see people dozing off,” said TracyProvost, a two-year guard veteran from Winooski. “The young guys arekeeping their eyes and ears open.”

When the Vermonters spot just-returned Iraq veterans at FortDix – they stand out because of their faded desert camouflage uniforms andscuffed boots – they never miss the chance to ask what it will be like. And theveterans are always willing to share the lessons they learned, the soldierssaid.

The Vermont NationalGuard members come from Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,New York and even California.

But six weeks of 18-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week training hasbrought them together like many never expected. They have become a team that isfocused on its goal of completing its mission and bringing everyone home alive.

“I wasn’t expecting everybody to be as close as theyare,” said Kelley.

The 86th, which draws soldiers from armories in Berlin, Burlington,Vergennes and Waterbury, is an artillery unit. But the Pentagon doesn’t needsoldiers who can fire the big guns. It needs policemen who can guard convoys orbases, in what the military calls a force protection mission.

So about 2,500 NationalGuard soldiers from Vermont, New Hampshire and six other states are beingretrained at Fort Dix as military policemen.

“It’s been nonstop training. And I do mean nonstop,”said Cannella. “I’ve learned how to live on four hours sleep.”

Even though Fort Dix is only a half day’s drive from northernNew England, none of the soldiers has seen family members since they saidgoodbye back home.

The Guard members have left their wives, husbands, childrenand families behind as they head off into the unknown. The soldiers aregrateful for the e-mail accounts the Army has set up on their behalf. Andthey’ve learned to grab the occasional phone call, be it at 5 a.m. or 10 p.m.

But the soldiers know they will miss the births of theirchildren, first steps, birthdays, high school graduations and family crises. Anumber left new brides behind.

“As hard as it is for us, it will be harder for ourfamilies,” said Cannella, whose daughter had her first birthday since heleft Vermont.

But the Vermonters are eager to get on with their mission,which includes a year in Iraq.

“The quicker we go the quicker we get back,” saidCannella.

There are two women in the 86th. But it’s no longer unusual tohave women in army units.

“I’m a cook,” said Sgt. Ann Marie Bolton, 28, ofVergennes, who left a toddler with her husband. “I’m doing all the samethings the others are doing.”

The convoy training mission was designed by Fort Dix officersand Iraq veterans to be as realistic as possible. And the soldiers havemastered the course and all the other training they have received.

There will be no ceremony when they leave. They’ll get on aplane at McGuire Air Force Base, which is adjacent to Fort Dix, and get off inKuwait, where they’ll have to adjust to the heat and the reality of where theyare.

The time is coming when the freshly trained soldiers will beon the lookout for roadside bombs that could kill them, the crowds of Iraqicivilians will be real and they will be ready to kill an enemy that wants tokill them.

“It’s a scary thought,” said Staff Sgt. Mark Wheelerof Berlin, at 50 one of the oldest members of the 86th. He is a truck driver incivilian life. “You just become very aware of things as you go into anarea where there is enemy. We’re good people. I feel good about it.”

March11, 2004

ArmyRetraining Soldiers to Meet Its Shifting Needs

By Eric Schmitt

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — Hard-pressed to  fill critical jobs in places like Iraq andAfghanistan, the Army is retraining thousands of forces essential to the coldwar, like tank operators and artillerymen, to be military police officers,civil affairs experts and intelligence analysts, positions the Pentagon needsfor long-term stabilizing operations.

The retraining is part of a larger effort that over the nextfive years will reassign about 100,000 reservists and active-duty soldiers inthe Army’s biggest restructuring in 50 years. The Air Force, Navy and MarineCorps are also rebalancing their forces for new missions: 50,000 positionsacross the military will have been reassigned by the end of next year. But theArmy has the largest share of the changes and the most ambitious overhaul underway.

The  aim is to reshapethe Army to be faster to the fight, to relieve the stress on a relatively smallnumber of Army National Guard andReserve soldiers who have been called up repeatedly in recent years and to tap500,000 reservists from all services who have not been activated in the pastdecade. According to the Defense Department, since 1990 the brunt of the dutyhas been borne by only 7 percent of the 876,000 reserves assigned to units thathave been involuntarily mobilized more than once.

TheArmy face-lift reflects Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s broader visionof revamping the military to respond more quickly to an array of threats and tobe more deadly.

“What our transformation will do is permit us to deploymore agile, lethal, adaptable forces,” Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Armychief of staff, told the House Armed Services Committee on Feb. 25.

But right now, the Army makeup, in particular, is out of syncwith those goals. Mr. Rumsfeld told a House appropriations subcommittee on Feb.12, “We have too few Guard andReserve forces with certain skill sets that are in high demand and too manyGuard and Reserve with skills that are in little or no demand.”

Gettingthis balance right is critical for the Army’s fighting abilities and thelong-term health of its recruiting and retention efforts. Army officials saidrecently that retention rates for active-duty and Reserve soldiers were laggingdespite re-enlistment bonuses of at least $5,000.

“If we continue to stress these very high-use units, werisk losing them,” said Thomas F. Hall, the assistant secretary of defensefor Reserve affairs.

In some cases, the restructuring means converting heavy combatbrigades of the Guard into lighter infantry units. In other instances, thechanges are more drastic.

In late February, the Army effort to regain its balance was infull swing here at Fort Leonard Wood, a large training base in the Ozarks ofsouth-central Missouri. TennesseeNational Guard artillerymen who had been trained to blast 155-millimeterhowitzers struggled as military police officers to master the nuances of rapekits, domestic violence cases and traffic stops.

By early 2005, the Army plans to convert 18 National Guardfield artillery batteries, with about 2,200 soldiers, into military policeunits. About 55 percent of the Army’s 38,500 military police officers are inthe National Guard or Reserve.

Forthese soldiers and their trainers, who are also reservists, the challenges areenormous. The eight-week course for military police trainees fresh from bootcamp has been compressed to four weeks for the Guard soldiers, largely becausethey are familiar with soldiering.

In a mock village of about 12 brick buildings, the soldierstackled training situations familiar to any military police officer on thebeat. Earlier in the training, the soldiers rehearsed urban warfare tactics anddetainee procedures, essential tasks for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Inside a mock dormitory, Sgt. First Class Sean Shea, 36, amilitary police instructor who is a Nashville police officer in civilian life,gathered five trainees and ran through a list of dos and don’ts for theirassignment, a rape investigation.

“Youhave to be careful how to talk to them,” Sergeant Shea said. “Youdon’t ask a victim, `How’s it going?’ and you don’t use the R word withthem.”

But what were the first words out of the mouth of SpecialistGary Mansfield after he entered the spartan room where a young woman,role-played by Specialist Amanda Broom, sat on the corner of a bed?

“How you doing?” Specialist  Mansfield asked, shifting his feetnervously.

It was a forehead-slapping moment for Sergeant Shea, but he patiently regrouped his charges and onthe second try, Specialist Mansfield, 23, a four-year Guard veteran fromFlorence, Ala., and his partner, Sgt. William Martin, 39, of Lexington, Tenn.,finished the interview while three other reservists examined fake blood stainsoutside the room.

Specialist Broom, 25, a military police officer, stepped outof character after the exercise to assess the soldiers’ performance.”Don’t wring your hands, you look nervous,” she told SpecialistMansfield. And to Sergeant Martin: “Make sure she can see you writingthings down. That makes her feel important.”

Their heads still swimming from the blur of procedures tolearn, both soldiers said they were nonetheless looking forward to the change.”It’s going to make the Guard more relevant,” said Sergeant Martin,who spent eight years in the Marines before switching to the Guard.

Across the street in the mock village, another group oftrainees learned the ins and outs of pulling over vehicles and dealing withdrunken drivers, assaults and worse. “It’s not that it’s hard to learn,but it is a totally different thing,” said Sgt. William Ray, 47, ofWaynesboro, Tenn., who spent 14 years in NationalGuard artillery units.

Once the soldiers finish their training here, they are boundfor duty at bases in the continental United States, Hawaii and Germany, freeingactive-duty military police officers there to go to Iraq or Afghanistan.

Trainersand some students say the change from artillery to law enforcement has been ajolt for many in the Guard. “There’s a lot of resentment by somereservists who didn’t sign up to be M.P.’s,” Staff Sgt. Sherry Sorensen,25, a military police instructor from Lexington, Ky., said. “But they needto understand this is something the Army has to do.”

Complaining aside, the transformation of armor, artillery andengineering troops for the infantry mission can already be seen among soldierspreparing for the stabilization operation in Iraq.

Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste, commander of the First InfantryDivision, ordered his troops to undergo a sweeping reorganization before theywere deployed to take responsibility for north-central Iraq from departingforces of the Fourth Infantry Division.

“Transformation is a reality of this mission,”General Batiste said in an interview at Camp Udairi in Kuwait, where his troopswere preparing for convoys heading north into Iraq. “We have takenengineers and our field artillery batteries and turned them into first-rateinfantry battalions. They will patrol territory. They will find and kill theenemy. They will conduct stability operations.”

One of those soldiers, Capt. Travis Van Hecke, who normallycommands Paladin self-propelled howitzers, will enter Iraq as a member of TaskForce 1-6, under the division’s Third Brigade — “but without our big guns,”he said. “We are now a patrol-type infantry battalion,” Captain VanHecke said. “We have a new focus. We are motorized infantry.”

Thom Shanker contributed reporting from Kuwait for thisarticle.

By Rick Breitenfeldt

National Guard Bureau

BATON ROUGE, La. (3/1/2004) — Nearly a year has passed since NationalGuard leaders from the 54 states and U.S. territories gathered together inColumbus, Ohio to listen to the chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lt. Gen. HSteven Blum’s historic initiative for transforming their organization.

In the weeks and months since that announcement, states and territories haveeach taken slightly different approaches to the chief’s vision of developingways to deploy more quickly, streamlining the integration with the activecomponents and organizing state headquarters into joint commands.

Louisiana National Guard officials started immediately with both the analysisand planning process to ensure the Guard remains a reliable, ready, relevantand accessible force for the 21st century.

“I think we’ve run with it straight forward and fast,” said Col. Ben Soileau,deputy chief of staff for the Louisiana National Guard.

Soileau said some of benefits of the transformation are already starting to makethemselves clear.

During this year’s national championship college football game held in NewOrleans, for example, the Louisiana Guard was tasked with assisting lawenforcement officials with security and also providing access control into thestadium.

Col. Ronnie D. Stuckey, director of operations for the Louisiana Guard, wasresponsible for putting together several Special Reaction Teams (SRT) of bothsoldiers and airmen to accomplish this mission.

Prior to becoming a joint staff, Stuckey said they would have all been thinkingArmy for a mission like this because of the substantially larger number ofsoldiers than airmen.
Now, Stuckey added, they try to pull from both sides of the house.

“The Air fell right in with the Army and both understood the joint mission andthat we were all one organization,” said Stuckey. “We were not a greenorganization or a blue organization. It was a purple operation with one commandand control cell and one mission.”

“With this joint concept, we’ve institutionalized something that we’ve alwaysbeen doing,” said Soileau, “and because we’ve institutionalized it, it has madeeveryone’s life a little bit easier.”

Col. Stephen C. Dabadie, Louisiana National Guard chief of staff saidperforming joint mission requires a joint staff that supports both thecommander and adjutant general, in addition to supporting those units that areperforming the mission.

“This has gone much beyond just signage on doors or billets,” said Dabadie. “Wehave truly taken state area commands (STARC) and the Headquarters for the AirNational Guard and combined them into a Joint Force Headquarters.”

“Active duty forces operate in a joint environment already,” said Soileau, “andall we’re doing now with the Guard is aligning ourselves up with the rest ofthe Department of Defense.”

Soileau said, in the true spirit of jointness, dialogues have also beeninitiated with other services such as the Navy Reserve and the Coast Guard,which are essential to a coastal state like Louisiana.

“We’re getting away from some Guard specific terminology and now speaking thesame language,” said Soileau. “We are now a joint operation and we will have towork together in the future.”

Although there have been some growing pains associated with the changes, Dabadiesaid his staff in Louisiana did everything possible to minimize disruptions.

“We did it deliberately and we did it slowly,” said Dabadie. “Ultimately, ourjob as a joint staff is to support soldiers and airmen, and now we are clearlybest configured to do that.”

By Rick Breitenfeldt

National Guard Bureau Public Affairs

BALTIMORE, Md. (3/1/2004) —Walking through training facilities, readiness centers and staff offices of theMaryland National Guard, most wouldn’t notice much of a change from years past,but start talking to the soldiers and airmen who sit at those desks or run theequipment and an entirely different message begins to emerge.

For nearly a year, the Maryland National Guard along with 53 other states and U.S.territories have been changing the way they think, changing the way they dobusiness and transforming into a force that is more responsive for the Americanpeople.

Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, began the processof transforming the Guard into a more modern and more responsive force for the21st century in a plan unveiled at last May during the spring conference of theAdjutant General Association of the United States in Columbus, Ohio.

“We fight jointly, and we need to train and operate on a daily basis in a jointenvironment so we can make the transition (from citizen to soldier) veryquickly. After all, our symbol is the Minuteman,” Blum said after unveiling hisplan last year.

Maj. Gen. Bruce F. Tuxill, adjutant general for the Maryland Guard, said hisorganization has made significant progress in less than a year since the Guardchief met with him and his counterparts.

“I see a lot of goodness in this,” said Tuxill, who believes one of the biggestchallenges he has faced is getting his staff to stop thinking on a servicespecific stovepipe level and begin looking at the more macro and joint levels.

“Transformation is a state of mind; it is getting everybody thinking indifferent ways to achieve different ends,” said Tuxill.

This different way of thinking was made abundantly clear as Hurricane Isabelwreaked havoc in the state in September 2003, said Tuxill.

“We got real smart real quick. We knew we needed to utilize all the forces thatare available to this state for the benefit of this state,” said Tuxill.

Col. Grant L. Hayden, director of operations for the Maryland Guard, said theAir Guard and Army Guard stood side by side in the joint operations centerduring the storm, which is something that may not have happened before thejoint concept.

Hurricane Isabel, said Hayden, provided numerous examples of this new way ofthinking when it comes to sharing information and assets of other services.

In addition to using Warfield Airbase as a staging area for troops andequipment and having a C-130 standing by to support the logistical aspects ofresponding to a storm of this magnitude, the Maryland National Guard evenapproached an engineering company of the Marine Corps Reserve located in thestate because of the number of Guard engineers who were deployed to support theGlobal War on Terrorism.

“This was something we never would have though of before we started talkingjoint,” said Hayden. “Transformation has brought us closer as an organization.It has brought us together and we work more closely and support each other.”

Tuxill said Maryland is in many ways unique because transforming the MarylandNational Guard goes beyond state borders and also means greater cooperationamong neighboring states and the District of Columbia.

For the first time, the Maryland National Guard is working with D.C. andVirginia within the National Capital Region to meet the terrorist threat, saidTuxill.

“If we have another incident like we had on Sept 11, 2001, I would have like tohave seen the other guys business card and had the opportunity to talk to themfirst,” said Tuxill. “Let’s not exchange cards after the event happens, let’sexchange them prior to and talk about how we can best posture ourselves forthis threat.”

DEPLOYMENT

By Sgt.1st Class Doug Sample, USA

AmericanForces Press Service

WASHINGTON (3/1/2004) — Though reserve component forces are goingthrough a stressful time, the Defense Department is working hard to improve thesituation, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told Guard and Reserveleaders here today.

Wolfowitz, speaking at the Adjutants General Association of the United Statesmid-winter meeting, told the group the nation is asking National Guard andReserve members to serve for longer periods and in larger numbers and”with greater uncertainty than I think any of us ever envisioned.”

Wolfowitz cited several burdens being placed on both reserve components, notingthat National Guard and Reserve soldiers make up 40 percent of the new rotationgoing into Iraq.

The deputy secretary said that when he flew into Iraq aboard a Tennessee AirNational Guard C-130 in July, he was told the unit had been on active duty 19of the 23 previous months. He said that case begs a fair question: “Are wedistributing the burden fairly?” It’s impressive, however, that fair ornot, “people take of the burdens that are assigned to them,” headded.

He said that case also illustrates the need for the Pentagon to look at tourlengths and balancing skill areas for Guard and Reserve forces. “We aredoing that,” he said. “And in doing so, we are emphasizing how we useour people, whether it’s for 39 days a year or for 365.”

He said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is committed to reducingmobilization by looking at how to balance military commitments throughout thetotal force.

“We need to ensure that we have the right kinds of capabilities that meetthe mission requirements we face,” he said. “We are looking hard atit, and I think we are making lots of changes, and I know we are makingprogress.”

Wolfowitz said the Pentagon is well aware that the process for calling up anddeploying National Guard and Reserve forces is “imperfect.” “Asyou know, our top leader is engaged, and everyone who works for him is engaged,including all of you in this room, to deal with this problem better,” hesaid.

The deputy secretary said the Pentagon is working with the combatant commandersand the services to ensure they are identifying requirements in a timely waythat allow for members of the Guard and Reserve to react “purposely andmethodically.”

“We are committed to not having one more soldier or airman than necessaryin any theater, nor one soldier or airman less than required,” he said.

Still, he reminded the room filled with top reserve component leaders that thenation is fighting a long war against terrorism. He said that in the two andhalf years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the country has made”extraordinary progress.” But, he added, “there’s a great dealmore to do.”

Wolfowitz said he has enormous respect for and is grateful to guardsmen andreservists for playing a critical role in the global war on terrorism and forhelping to strengthen the total force.

The nation “could not fight the war on terrorism without the support ofguardsmen and reservists, and the employers who support them,” he said.

FamiliesGet Ready for Guard Deployment  

By Karen Blakeman, Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai’i National Guardsoldiers got a little down time with their families yesterday, a bit of abreather before Company C, 193rd Aviation heads out to the Middle East laterthis month.

For the next year, the Chinook helicopter unit — with about200 of Hawai’i’s citizens — will ferry soldiers and supplies across hostileterritory and provide combat support in Iraq.

Since the Guardsmenand women were taken out of their civilian jobs across the state and placed onfull-time military duty in January, they’ve worked long, hard hours preparingfor the trip, with little off-duty time for anything beyond sleep.

Yesterday,the Guard threw Company C families a lu’au, which included long tablesdecorated with orchids and pineapples and stretching the length of a hangar atWheeler Army Airfield, and inflatable bouncers for the children near the hangardoors. A band, made up of Company C Guard soldiers, warmed up as Capt. JoeLaurel, company commander, stood next to one of the two remaining CH-47 Chinookhelicopters and discussed the deployment.

“It’s been a challenging mobilization period,” hesaid. “But the company is over the hump.”

Most of Company C’s Chinooks have been shipped out to theMiddle East, so flying time is down. The company has one more major exercisethis week: Its soldiers will learn, under realistic conditions, to protecttheir ground convoy across Iraq should it come under fire.

“Real bullets, real vehicles — the culmination of a lotof the training we’ve been through to date,” Laurel said.

How tohelp the families

People and organizations interested in assisting the familiesof the Guard’s Company C, 193rd Aviation may contact Leilani Kerr [email protected].

Organizations wishing to adopt a deploying platoon in CompanyC or any other Guard, Reserve or active-duty unit may contact George Vickers [email protected].

But the primary focus of the next couple of weeks, Laurelsaid, will be the soldiers’ families.

“The NationalGuard has ponied up with an aircraft and flown some of them over here fromthe Neighbor Islands,” Laurel said. Families of some Ohio soldiers whohave been training and will deploy with the Hawai’i Guard soldiers also areflying in over the next weeks, he said.

In addition to spending time with the soldiers, the next weekswill be a time for family members to solidify the company’s Family ReadinessGroup, an organization that will keep the families informed during thecompany’s absence.

LeilaniKerr, wife of the company’s executive officer, 1st Lt. Chris Kerr, said theFamily Readiness Group has been meeting in small gatherings since January. Theinformation passed on is extremely helpful for families of soldiers who werepart-timers and don’t fully understand the military benefits available to them nowthat the spouses are on full-time active duty.

The first half-hour of the meetings are business, she said.Trying to figure out how to get money so the families can get together severaltimes during the yearlong deployment has been a primary concern, and one thathasn’t been worked out yet. The second part of each meeting is talk-story time.

“We vent to each other,” she said. “It makes itfeel like a load has been taken off. We share things and support eachother.”

The shopping lists the soldiers brought home for thedeployment prompted interesting discussions.

 “They had somereally weird things on those lists,” she said. “Like panty liners.Why do they need panty liners? Well, to put in their helmets to absorb thesweat.”

Leilani’s activities with the FSG won’t stop her fromsnatching her husband away from work and taking him to some quiet place in thecoming days, where he can spend time with her and the couple’s four children.

Esther, 7, and Zachary, 5, don’t seem to fully understand whatis going on with their father, she said. The older two children, Titus, 9, andMicah, 10, ask a lot of questions.

“Like: What if Daddy gets killed in the war?”Leilani said. Esther, who stood at her mother’s knee, made a noise in asingsong voice. Her mother kept talking.

The couple tell the children that Daddy has been working sohard these past weeks so that he will be very well trained to survive thedeployment, she said.

“We reinforce our faith in God and say Daddy will be OK,and he’ll be protected,” she said.

Esther looked up. She asked her question in a tiny voice:”But how do you know?”

But she stepped away before Leilani had a chance to answer,and she moved toward her father and climbed into his arms.

March 9, 2004

NationalGuard Deployments Affect Many Tennessee families

By FredFrancis

KNOXVILLE -Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 143,000 NationalGuard members have been mobilized worldwide.

Tennessee’stop National Guard unit, whichhasn’t been called to combat since the Korean War, is getting ready for Iraq.The weekend warriors must go, but what happens after they return home?

The war inIraq has slammed into most of Tennessee like a tornado, crashing into the livesof over 4,000 National Guardfamilies, jolting employers, surprising the troops.

 “A bit excited, but also a bit stunned,” said19-year-old John Fogerty.

Scenes likethis are nationwide. Some say that’s because Pentagon planners didn’t plan sowell.

Theactive-duty Army needs rest. The only option is sending Guard and Reserve troops to replace them, stressing weekendwarriors as never before.  Some 46percent of the 110,000 troops needed in Iraq will be part-time soldiers.

Communitieslike those around Knoxville are reeling. According to Lt. Col. Dennis Adams, commander of the 287^thCavalry Regiment, “That’s lots of fathers, dads, foremen, professors,architects, engineers, policemen, coaches. You name it – it’ll be a tremendousgap.”

But the gapthe Pentagon is worried about is after tens of thousands of Guard soldiersreturn home next year. Will many quit?

Right nowGuard units are above their quotas. Some officials say that is because of a poor job market, but a surveydone by the Guard, of 5,000 troops, suggests that over 20 percent will notre-up after a year on active duty.

 “We are challenged at home because of thewear and tear on our National Guard and our Reserve folks.  We are simply wearing out our people and ourmilitary families,” said Adm. Norbert Ryan of the Military Association of America.

Capt. Owen Rayof the Tennessee National Guardwon’t quit.  The bank where he works ismaking up the difference in his salary. Most of his men are not so lucky. “When all this is said and done, therewill be a retention issue that many leaders are going to have to face. They aregoing to have to rebuild the morale because soldiers will be gone so long.”

And the issueis not just morale, being away from families and jobs.  A quarter of all the Army Guard is now on active duty, which isnot what most signed up for.  Mostexpected to serve at home for disasters and homeland security, training onSaturdays and Sundays and a few weeks in summer, not in an overseas war with noend.

Tears,fanfare as troops depart

Wives Write Love Letters and at Least One SoldierHas Second Thoughts as California Guardsmen Head for Duty in Iraq.

By Rone Tempest and Seema Mehta, Times Staff Writers

FT. IRWIN, Calif. — Not even the harsh desert sun could drythe tears of sadness and pride on Saturday as hundreds of families bid adieu tothe largest contingent of overseas-bound California National Guard soldiers since the Korean War.

 “I’m extremelyproud of my son because he believes in what he is doing,” said NancyNavarro, mother of Spc. Nicholas Navarro, 24, of Victorville, “but for hismother’s heart, it’s tough. I’m praying for him.”

 Also saying goodbye tothe young soldier, who worked in a skateboard-shoe shop before being called up,were two sisters; his wife, Rhiannon, 25; and 10-month-old daughter, Makenna.

More than 2,500 troops from the National Guard 81st SeparateArmor Brigade, including 900 from California, depart, beginning today, for aone-year assignment in Iraq, where they are to replace regular Army forces. Bythe end of May, Pentagon officials say, nearly half of the 110,000 U.S. troopsin Iraq will be National Guard or reserve personnel.

It is the first time since Korea that the Guard and reserveshave played such a major overseas role. California, where polls show citizensto be among the least supportive of the Iraq war effort, is sending more Guardand reserve troops than any other state.

The largest California Guard unit is the 1st Battalion, 185thArmor Regiment headquartered in San Bernardino, which is sending 612 soldiersto Iraq. Most of the other California soldiers assembled on the tarmac of theFt. Irwin helicopter base were from the 160th Mechanized Infantry Battalionfrom Riverside and the 579th Engineers from Manhattan Beach.

As the military band played martial tunes, four wives of menin the 160th huddled in the grandstands in an impromptu support group. Whilethey waited for the ceremony to start, each of the four wrote a love letter forher husband to read on the way to Iraq.

In her letter to Staff Sgt. Kevin Phillips, Colleen Phillipswrote: “You are everything to me and I wanted to tell you how very proud Iam. I could not be luckier to have a man who is so brave and sosensitive.” She signed the letter with the couple’s traditionalsalutation: “noses, hearts and never-ending moonbeams.” In civilianlife, Sgt. Phillips, 42, is a Long Beach park policeman. Colleen Phillips is aregistered dental assistant. They have four children, ages 17, 15, 9 and 6.They live in Lakewood.

The California “citizen soldiers” in the National Guard leave behind civilianjobs ranging from schoolteacher to prison guard. They arrived this weekend bybus from Southern California armories, in minivans jammed with kids and, in thecase of one millionaire enlisted man, a private airplane.

Greg Shirk, 44, of Visalia, made a small fortune in 2001 whenhis family sold its chain of 12 grocery stores to a Texas company. For a time,the tall, fair-skinned Shirk, a mere specialist in the National Guard, dabbled in business and politics.

Acomputer venture failed. Running as a Republican, Shirk lost a race for TulareCounty supervisor. Two years ago, Shirk’s marriage to an attorney ended indivorce. The final decree left his two-story, Southern-style mansion, modeledon the plantation house at Tara in “Gone With the Wind,” to hisex-wife and two sons, 6 and 4.

“This deployment came at a really good time for me,”Shirk said, interviewed in Visalia while on a three-day leave before returningto Ft. Irwin. “I was between jobs and just working at one of our ranches.Besides, I never thought this should be a rich man’s war and a poor man’sfight.” Shirk, tooling around town in his mother’s Jaguar sedan, spentmuch of his leave visiting his two sons.

Sam, the 4-year-old, has his own camouflage fatigues and anArmy-issue Kevlar helmet. The boys’ mother, Jennifer Shirk, said that sinceGreg Shirk’s assignment to Iraq, Sam has insisted on watching Fox Newsbroadcasts instead of cartoons.

Sam has memorized the lyrics to Lee Greenwood’s “GodBless the U.S.A.” Singing it for a reporter in the sweeping grounds of thecountry estate outside Visalia, his voice rose when he got to the lines:”And I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free. And Iwon’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.” The youngster’sfervent patriotism almost matches that of his father.

“Greg is probably the most patriotic person I know,”said Greg’s brother Eric Shirk, 40, who piloted Greg to the Barstow-Doggettairport in the private Cessna 182. “When I always wanted to go to Hawaiiand sit on the beach, Greg wanted to visit a battlefield someplace.”

At the airport, Greg Shirk embraced his stepfather, Visaliagrocery magnate Leonard Whitney, a World War II veteran of 33 B-17 missionsover Germany and a major influence in Greg’s life.

Afterward, in a car heading to Ft. Irwin, the infectiouslygung-ho Spc. Shirk had a brief tearful breakdown in which he wondered aloudabout his mission to Iraq. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” Shirktold a photographer who accompanied him on the drive. “I should have had myhead examined. This stuff is for 18-year-olds.”

Most of the Guardsmen heading to Iraq do not have Shirk’sprivileged background.

Sgt. Carlos Lopez, 38, is a history teacher at North ParkMiddle School in Pico Rivera. Spc. Jaime Castillo, 25, of Van Nuys, is acollege student who works as a phlebotomist, drawing blood from patients atKaiser Hospital West Hills.

The strapping, 6-foot-3 Castillo is a medic who, during fouryears of service in the regular Army before joining the National Guard, servedoverseas in Bosnia and Nicaragua. Castillo asked his parents, Jose and RosaCastillo, also of Van Nuys, not to attend the Saturday send-off at Ft. Irwin.”These things get too sad,” he said.

Instead, he was seen off by his girlfriend and fellowNational  Guard trooper, Sgt. Sandra DelGadillo, 26, of Torrance. The two met in Bosnia, where they were both onassignment in the Army. Sgt. Del Gadillo is not being deployed to Iraq.

According to Charmion Sellers, wife of Sgt. 1st Class DavidSellers of the San Bernardino-based 185th Armor Regiment, not all of thespouses and girlfriends are prepared emotionally for the long separation ahead.

The mother of two, who is volunteer coordinator for theregiment’s spouses, said monthly counseling sessions had been set up in Corona,Orange and Long Beach for the spouses. “Some are having a really hardtime,” she said, “especially because it is the first time that theirsoldiers are going for such a long time.”

Theseparation got even more emotional last week when the National Guard commandthreatened to cancel the soldiers’ final three-day leave after two weapons,belonging to battalion commander Lt. Col. Barry Sayers and Command Sgt. Maj.Anthony Hines, were stolen at the Ft. Irwin training site.

The 185th’s tent quarters on the edge of Ft. Irwin wereordered locked down and the soldiers’ gear was subjected to several searches,but the two weapons, 9-millimeter pistols normally carried by officers andranking non-commissioned officers, were never found.

When the leave was canceled, several National Guard soldierscontacted reporters and local political representatives to complain. Severalhad planned to get married during the three-day break.

“Some people were going to go, no matter what,” saidSpc. Victor DiCarlo, 22, of Irvine. DiCarlo interrupted his studies atSaddleback College and a job at Macy’s to go to Iraq.

Finally, the commanders relented and restored the leave, butnot without adding to the strain already on the departing troops. “The gunthing was a real roller-coaster ride for several days,” Castillo said.

Even Charmion Sellers, a veteran of several overseasdeployments during her husband’s 13-year career in the Marines, was feeling thepressure.

“I just want them to go now,” she said. “Thesefour months in limbo since the deployment was announced have caused havoc. Ijust want my husband to go and get it over with. He’s retiring after thisone.”

March 13,2004

SpreadThin Globally, Army Calls on Same Units for Back-to-Back Combat Tours in Iraq

By Robert Burns, AP Military Writer

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

The Army is spread so thin around the globe that when it needsfresh combat troops for Iraq this fall it will have little choice but to callon the same soldiers who led the charge into Baghdad last spring.

The 3rd Infantry Division already has been given an official”warning order” to prepare to return to Iraq as soon as Thanksgiving.When those soldiers flew home from Iraq last summer to their bases in Georgia,few of them could have known they were, in effect, on a roundtrip ticket.

They are not alone in facing back-to-back deployments to Iraq.Some of the same Marines who teamed up with the 3rd Infantry to topple Baghdadare already assembling again in Kuwait, only a matter of months after returninghome, and more Marines will go next year.

Other Army units that recently returned to the United Statesor are preparing to come home this spring, including the 101st AirborneDivision at Fort Campbell, Ky., and the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood,Texas, are candidates for a quick turnaround.

The Army has not announced which will join the 3rd Infantry inthe next rotation, although it has notified three National Guard brigades and a NationalGuard division headquarters that they are likely to go in early 2005.

When the Saddam Hussein government collapsed, U.S. troops inIraq figured the war was over, except for some mopping up.

But as the acting secretary of the Army, Les Brownlee,acknowledged to Congress last week, “we simply were not prepared” forthe insurgency that developed in early summer, prolonging the war and takingthe lives of hundreds of American soldiers.

One 3rd Infantry soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Eric Wright, put itthis way in Iraq last June: “What was told to us was that we would fightand win and go home.”

It’s not that simple.

Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the JointChiefs of Staff, said recently that the Marines and the Army are going to shareas equally as possible the burden of keeping forces in Iraq for the foreseeablefuture.

But it has been and will remain predominantly an Army effort.

“At some point we’ll go back,” said Maj. Gen. DavidPetraeus, commander of the 101st Airborne. He said it also was possible histroops would be sent to Afghanistan next instead of Iraq. The 101st played amajor role in the initial invasion of Iraq and has only just returned home.

Some are concerned that the Army is being squeezed so hardthat soldiers will quit in droves. Statistics on reenlistments and recruitingdon’t show that to be the case – not yet, anyway. And some who know the Armybest say its soldiers are willing to accept the hectic pace.

“We’ve got an Army and we’re using it,” says retiredGen. Gordon Sullivan, a former Army chief of staff and currently president ofthe Association of the U.S. Army, a booster group.

Yet Sullivan, who recently visited U.S. troops in Iraq andKuwait, acknowledged that sending war veterans back for a second tour of dutymeans the Army is stretched tighter than it has been in decades.

“Loosely, in a historical perspective, it’s notdissimilar to what you saw in World War II in Europe,” he said in aninterview. “We’re just going to keep using them.”

The Army has 10 active-duty divisions, and parts or all ofeach have been in Iraq or Afghanistan or are heading there this spring.

To make the challenge even greater, even as it struggles toprovide enough active-duty forces for Iraq, the Army is quietly undertaking afundamental reorganization of its combat divisions, starting with the 3rdInfantry.

Thatinfantry division will have four combat brigades, of roughly 3,800 soldierseach, instead of its traditional three, by the time it completes its trainingthis fall and heads back to Iraq. It will get that extra firepower by acquiringsome elements, such as artillery, military intelligence and military police,from its division and corps headquarters.

A similar transformation is planned during the course of thisyear for the 101st Airborne and the 10th Mountain divisions.

The Army also is relying more heavily on the National Guard and Reserve to maintaina combat force in Iraq. Brigades from North Carolina, Arkansas and Washingtonstate are there or soon will be en route, as part of the 2004 rotation offorces.

Another three brigades, from Tennessee, Louisiana and Idaho -plus a division headquarters from the New York National Guard – have been alerted that they probably will be sentto Iraq in the next rotation, in early 2005.

GUARD IN IRAQ

By Tom Roeder, The Gazette

They didn’t see the heavy fighting that happened elsewhere inIraq, but Colorado National Guardsoldiers did battle lawlessness, loneliness, bureaucratic frustration and,perhaps the most pervasive enemy, boredom.

 “One of my squads hada mustache-growing contest,” said Lt. Russ Gibson of Bailey. “People would doanything to be entertained.”

Jolted from their civilian jobs and families on notice asshort as one day, National Guard troops from Colorado followed the main Armypush toward Baghdad a year ago and brought law and order to Nasiriyah and thesurrounding highways, vital supply lines for the units fighting their way toBaghdad.

Gibsonand 152 other members of the 220th Military Police Company were some of the firstNational Guard soldiers to enter Iraq.

A longtime member of the Guard who never had left the countryon a deployment, Gibson was told to pack up on 24 hours’ notice, leaving behindhis wife and his job as an environmental consultant with no time to tie uploose ends.

 “My wife and I had aquick heart-to-heart,” he said.

Sgt. James Lamkin of Denver, studying to become an investmentadviser, also was deployed on short notice. He joined the Guard after leavingthe Army, a move many soldiers make in pursuit of the retirement plan thatcomes with 20 years or more of service. He hadn’t seen his girlfriend inmonths, and she would have to wait another year for his return.

The Guardsmen marched into Iraq right behind the tanks, butthey weren’t going to Baghdad. They stopped at Talil outside Nasiriyah, one ofthose places unnoticed in peacetime, but a crucial crossroads for war.

They held those roads and protected convoys that constantlypassed through to bring supplies from ships in the Persian Gulf to the occupyingforce of 135,000.

Like so many soldiers in the war, the Guardsmen accomplishedwhat was expected of them by learning quickly and improvising.

Guarding the route wasn’t like duty farther north. Thesesoldiers dealt more with common criminals than guerrillas. On a regular basis,they apprehended hijackers, thieves and smugglers.

Their most common foes, though, were boredom and loneliness.

At Talil, there was little to do. Many of the activities youngpeople in America seek out during their spare time are banned in the Islamiccountry. There’s no alcohol and no dating.

 “I think the mainthing that helped us get through that was that it sucks just as bad for theperson right next to you as it does for you,” said Lamkin, who joined the unitweeks after leaving the regular Army in 2002. “Trying to keep morale up wasnear impossible.”

Lamkin was trained as a mechanic, not a police officer. Gibsonwas an engineer with no police experience.

The worst time in Iraq was summer. On top of the scorchingheat, Army food and the long days on patrol came shattered hopes.

Gibson and Lamkin said word would come every few weeks thatthe 220th was headed home. The news prompted cheers, then depression when itturned out to be a false alarm.

“It is an extremely difficult thing to be ready to go home andthen be told that you are staying,” Gibson said.

Many Guardsmen had frustrating problems with their pay.

The Army has one pay system for full-time soldiers and anotherfor part-timers. Calling up Guardsmen taxed a balky accounting system thathasn’t been fixed.

The problem was bad enough to draw an inquiry from the federalGeneral Accounting Office, which found more than a third of the 220th soldierswere paid late, overpaid or underpaid.

Lamkin said the pay problems, some of them still continuing,hurt morale.

Then there was the food. Army chow, either in individualpackets or in unit-sized servings.

“You’d just as soon stay hungry than eat that food,” Lamkinsaid. “I lost a lot of weight.”

The saving grace was mail.

When it finally caught up with the 220th, it came in waves.Soldiers cherished every letter.  Lamkin has every note he got during the year.

It took months, but telephone lines came, too.

Gibson called his wife every couple of weeks. “It made iteasier,” he said.

Lamkin called his parents.

Ingenuity also played a role in keeping the men going.

After eight- or 10-hour patrols, the soldiers arrangedeverything from football games to card tournaments. Anything to stave off theboredom.

“People who have never really read a book started readingvolumes,” Gibson said.

Care packages from home with DVDs and CDs were prized. There’snothing like a year in Iraq to make people appreciate what they left behind.

Gibsonnever appreciated his wife the way he does now. “There’s just no way I could dojustice to what she did.”

Lamkin said he’s learned to love the little details of lifeback home. “I’ll never look at a toilet that flushes the same way again.”

Gibson is returning to his job as an environmental consultantafter he takes a vacation. He said almost all the men will return to theiremployers after the war.

The exception is a handful of people in the company who rantheir own businesses.

 “You kind of fireyourself,” Gibson said.

Lamkin, who trained to sell mutual funds before the war, isunsure where he’s headed. There’s that girlfriend in Texas who stuck with himduring the war. There are also lots of things to do.

 “I have a lot ofdifferent doors I could go through,” Lamkin said.

March 14,2004

Milestonefor Maine Soldiers

More than half thestate’s National Guard units remain overseas nearly a year after the Iraq warbegan.

By David Hench Staff Writer

A year after the U.S. launched its war against Iraq, more thanhalf of Maine’s National Guard unitsremain overseas on missions that range from guarding prisoners outside Baghdadto training the Afghan army.

Maine has the third-highest percentage of activated National Guard soldiers in the country,in part because two of its major Army units were called upon early in theconflict and its largest was just deployed this winter.

The 112th Medical Company, an air ambulance unit, arrived inthe Middle East just as the war broke out last March. The 1136th TransportationCompany, which hauls water, fuel and other cargo, followed a month later. Theyspent a blistering hot summer in the Persian Gulf as the regime of SaddamHussein toppled and the U.S. asserted its control over the country.

Saturday, March 20, marks the one-year anniversary of theinvasion. It’s an important milestone for those soldiers and their families whohave been separated since the conflict started.

“Both those units are approaching their one yearboots-on-the-ground anniversary and have been pulled out of Iraq back to Kuwaitand are in the transition phase of coming home,” said Brig. Gen. JohnLibby, head of the state’s NationalGuard.

Meanwhile the 133rd Engineer Battalion, which builds roads,buildings and other infrastructure, is funneling into northern Iraq, setting upbase in Mosul, part of the second wave of guard units dispatched in support ofmilitary operations in Iraq. Some of the battalion’s companies have arrived inKuwait and others have yet to leave Fort Drum, N.Y.

The 152nd Field Artillery unit, which was deployed at the sametime as the engineers, is serving in a military police capacity, guarding aprisoner compound just west of Baghdad.

In Afghanistan, the United States continues its hunt foral-Qaida terrorists while helping a fledgling government survive. Twenty Mainershave joined the 172nd Infantry Mountain Division, headquartered in Vermont, tohelp train a new Afghan National Army in a country that has been dominated byunregulated, undisciplined militias under the control of tribal warlords.

A handful of Air NationalGuard members are based in Qatar, Iraq and southwest Asia, while the bulkare assigned to guard air installations here at home, including in Bangor.

The wide geographical spread of Maine forces is the result ofmeshing their talents with the overall needs of the military.

“When integrated with active forces, they’re going to beall over the place,” said Lt. Col. Dave Turner of the Maine Army National Guard. “That’s whatthey’re trained to do – go where needed.”

Naval reservists are serving in a variety of roles. Andmembers of the Army Reserve’s 94th Military Police Company from Saco have beenworking a series of assignments in different parts of Iraq, includingpatrolling Baghdad and guarding prisoners in Fallujah.

Besides National Guardsmen and reservists who are stationedaround the world, roughly 400 active duty Navy personnel assigned to the VP-26patrol squadron from Brunswick Naval Air Station are currently based in Italyas part of a scheduled rotation.

While base officials would not discuss specifics of theassignment, the squadron’s surveillance capabilities were used heavily duringthe first Iraqi war and that role is likely to have continued.

The Coast Guard cutter Wrangell, with a crew of 16, also hasbeen deployed to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

For those NationalGuard and reserve members who shipped out early in the conflict, and fortheir families, this week’s one-year anniversary has special significance.

“It kind of feels like you’re over the hump and on thedownslope,” said Tammy Lehnig of Sanford, whose husband Damon, a postalworker, is with the 1136th, now working in the border region between Iraq andKuwait. “It makes you realize it’s been a year and kind of marks the timeperiod of the struggle we’ve gone through already.”

Lehnig, a flight attendant, said she refuses to get her hopesup about when her husband is getting home.

In fact, she says the most important advice she would offer tofamily members of the 133rd and 152nd is, don’t get your hopes up when you hearthey’re coming home.

“The rumor is always going to be they’re coming home. Ifyou believe every one of them, that’s going to make it hard,” she said.”Save yourself some heartache. And stay busy.”

Like other soldiers, Damon Lehnig has experienced remarkablethings in Iraq, some of which make him long for home.

“The thing that blew him away was to see camels justwandering around kind of like in a herd,” she said. “Like you seedeer here, over there it’s camels.” Then there was the camel spider, biggerthan a pack of cigarettes, that supposedly sprays an anesthetic on a person’sskin so they can’t feel when it bites.

Auring Monette of Dresden, whose son George is with thetransportation unit, said she believes he will return home this month, thoughthe military does not provide dates to avoid dashing hopes.

“We are really, really anxious to see our son. We will behappy to have him come home healthy in one piece,” she said. And he’seager to return, she said. “I think every one of them is homesick.”

She’ll be glad to have him back, but waiting for her son’sreturn has been easier than when she was a young mother waiting for his fatherto return from Navy deployments. Then she was raising four children in tinyDresden without a driver’s license.

“I drove to the market at 12 because that is when thepolice were eating their lunch,” she recalls, chuckling.

For Jeffrey Blake, the approaching anniversary coincidesroughly with his own. A Naval Reserve corpsman, Blake got married on March 31,the day he shipped out to join a U.S. Marine Corps armored unit as its medicalstaff.

An hour after he landed in Kuwait, he was aboard aneight-wheeled armored vehicle barreling north into the heart of the conflict.He spent his first night napping in body armor against a street curb as bulletswhizzed overhead.

Heat and dehydration were almost as serious a health threat asenemy gunman, he said.

“We actually peaked out at 147 degrees,” said Blake,a paramedic-firefighter for the city of Gardiner. “It was 100 to 120degrees every day through the summer and it rained twice in the seven months wewere there.”

The light and fast unit he was attached to shifted all overthe country, at one point doing security patrols along the Iranian border, hesaid.

Blake came home in October, and he knows well theuncertainties and adjustments the NationalGuard units may face as the end of their tour approaches.

“We got delayed a number of times. Our date to come homekept changing,” he said. “We were the last Marine unit to leave. Anytime there were security issues that would pop up we would get delayed.”

His familiar life in Maine didn’t seem so familiar when he gotback. “It’s different not sleeping on the ground, not sleeping with oneeye open. I’m having to relearn all the normal sounds in the house,” hesaid.

He and his wife Kerry plan to celebrate their one-yearanniversary with a real wedding this time, he said.

The Maine units return with skills and experience they couldnever have obtained at home, Libby said.

But at the same time, the lengthy deployment – the third orfourth in a decade for some Maine units – is taking a toll, on the Guardsmen,their families and ultimately on the NationalGuard’s ability to retain its experienced personnel.

“All of them have given up something,” Libby said.”They’ve given up time with their family. They’ve given up considerableincome. Some lose families over deployments like this.”

Libby said that so far, the latest word on deployments for thethird wave of Guardsmen that will be assigned to Iraq does not include anyMaine units.

Lehnig says she’s still won’t take anything for granted.

“I don’t think it’s going to be over soon,” shesaid. “My biggest concern is hoping they’re not ever going to have to goback.”

David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:

[email protected]

Staff art/ Maine troops around the world/ As of March 12,there were 1,143 Mainers with the Army and Air National Guard deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom andOperation Enduring Freedom.

Afghanistan (map):

·       172nd Mountain Infantry, includes 12 Mainers helping totrain the Afghan National Army.

·       120th Aviation. The bulk of this air traffic controlunit returned last month, but two members volunteered to stay on.

Irag (map):

·       152nd Field Artillery Batallion, 124 personnel guardinga prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad.

·       133rd Engineer Batallion, 500 personnel. An advancesquad has set up in Mosul in northen Iraq, with the rest of the unit at Kuwait,in transit or still at Fort Drum, N.Y.

·       112th Medical Company, 135 personnel in northernKuwait.

·       1136th Transportation Company, 151 personnel innorthern Kuwait.

Italy (map):

·       VP-26 Navy patrol squadron, 400 members from theBrunswick Naval Air Station are on a scheduled deployment at Sigonella NavalAir Station in Sicily, Italy.

·       169th Military Police Company has seven membersstationed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

·       172nd Mountain Infantry has 31 members on active dutyproviding security at the Bangor Air NationalGuard base.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Wrangell is deployed to thePersian Gulf with a crew of 16.

March9, 2004

Guard GetsBigger Role In Iraq 

The Montgomery-basedgroup will work ‘hand in hand’ with active-duty personnel

By Crystal Bonvillian, Montgomery Advertiser

Members of the AlabamaAir National Guard will be assuming a more active role in the Iraqi andAfghanistan conflicts, becoming the backup to the force’s Network OperationsSecurity Center.

The226th Combat Communications Group, based at Montgomery’s Abston Air NationalGuard Station, will take over for the security center, or NOSC, in the event ofa natural or man-made disaster, Air Force officials say.

“It’s really a huge deal,” said Maj. Mike Dyer,flight commander for the 226th. “The AirNational Guard and active dutywill be working hand in hand.”

According to a report from the Ninth Air Force and the U.S.Central Command Air Forces, the NOSC, based at Shaw Air Force Base in SouthCarolina, is responsible for analyzing, protecting, monitoring and managingcommunications throughout the central command’s 25-nation area. That areaincludes Southwest Asia, the Persian Gulf and the Horn of Africa.

As the Iraqi conflict began to wind down, the report said,military communications experts determined there was a need for an alternateNOSC for times in which the South Carolina NOSC could not handle its duties.Maj. Paul Griggs, public affairs spokesman for the Air National Guard, said thestation in Montgomery became a viable choice because of the communicationsexpertise Guardsmen here have.

“They have vast experience in computer networking,”Griggs said. “Montgomery was a perfect fit.”

As such, it becomes the only one of its kind in the world,Dyer said.

“This is the first facility of this type that the AirNational Guard will man,” Dyer said. “All other NOSCs — there is onein Europe, in the Pacific and in Virginia — are handled by activemilitary.”

The Montgomery facility will be the only A-NOSC in the world,he said. It will be manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There will beabout 15 or 16 people on duty at any given time.

“There are only 35 people in the 226th,” Dyer said.”But there are also subordinate squadrons, totaling between 600 and 800people.”

Subordinate squadrons that report to the 226th combat groupare as close as Dothan and as far away as St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, Dyerand Griggs said.

Dyer said the 226th’s new duties would be a good way to fostera better relationship between Air National Guard troops.

“Guard troops in general need to work more closely thanthey have in the past,” he said.

March 9, 2004

Guard UnitPreparing To Go Home Delayed In Iraq

DATELINE: SPEARFISH,S.D.

A South Dakota NationalGuard unit that was preparing to go home after serving nearly a year inIraq won’t be leaving the Middle East after all – at least not now.

Members of the Guard’s 740th Transportation Co. hadtransferred to Kuwait where they handed in their weapons, gave their vehiclesto replacement troops and shipped most of their personal belongings back to thestates.

Then they got word that they would be sent back to Iraq, minussome of their military vehicles.

“It’s heart-wrenching for everyone,” said Maj.Harold Walker, public information officer for the South Dakota Army National Guard. “By simple math,this unit will reach 365 days ‘boots on ground’ on April 19. It may haveappeared they might go (home) a bit early, but there’s still work to do.”

South Dakota Army NationalGuard Lt. Col. Steven Dunn said the delay was “kind of typical”of military operations. But he said the equipment substitution was unusual andof concern.

More than 2,500 South Dakota guardsmen and reservists weremobilized for duty in 2003. Most of the soldiers are in Iraq and beginning thisspring, many of the units will reach one year of service overseas.

Walker said the plight of the 740th is not an indication ofany difficulties.

“We haven’t heard about any problems with the rotations,and we have no indications that rotations will push beyond 365 days ‘boots onground,”‘ he said. “As tough as it may sound, guard members know thatyou don’t know when you’re leaving until you’re on the plane.”

The 740th Transportation Company is based out of Brookings andMilbank and has 140 members.

The delay has received attention from members of SouthDakota’s congressional delegation.

“I have heard from many soldiers and families regardingthe 740th Transportation Company currently serving in Kuwait,” said Sen.Tom Daschle, D-S.D. “I am particularly disturbed by reports that thesesoldiers lack basic equipment to perform their duties safely.”

A spokesman for Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., said he, too, waslooking into the matter.

REUNION

March 7, 2004

Guard Troops Trade Hostile Iraq for a Warm WelcomeHome

A contingent of Florida National Guard troops returnshome to a tearful reunion with family and friends after nine months of combatin Iraq.

By Tim Henderson

Theycame home to greetings quite different from the ones they left behind in Iraq.

On Saturday, the C Company of the Florida National Guard’s 1st Infantry Battalion arrived at thearmory in North Miami after a year of duty in the Middle East.

”Ilove Miami,” they shouted, still dressed in their desert camouflage,surrounded by family members crying with joy.

Their mission in Iraq was to keep order and hunt downinsurgents. They spent nine months in Ramadi, a rural town in the so-calledSunni Triangle, known for its hostility to U.S. troops. People on the streetsometimes showed the soles of their shoes in an Iraqi gesture of contempt.

”Therewas a lot of ignorance,” said Specialist Enrique Hartmann of Miami Shores.“The people who would have helped us were peer-pressured by the ones whoreally hated us.”

Hartmann, a Florida International University student, said thesoldiers’ immigrant backgrounds gave them a special bond.

”A lot of the guys in this outfit are first-generationAmericans from countries that are under communism or are economicallydisadvantaged,” he said. “So it’s a real duty for us to pay back that libertyand opportunity that this country gave our parents.”

Thecompany suffered no combat deaths but saw 28 injuries that resulted in PurpleHearts, the last one coming on the group’s final day in Iraq when thecommanding officer, Capt. Tad Warfel of Tallahassee, was hit with shrapnel inthe arm.

”All this group has accomplished, we couldn’t begin to tellyou. Everybody you talk to can tell you something. They’ve just beenwonderful,” said Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Ron Tittle. “And the families andemployers have done everything they can to support them.”

Enrique Reyes of Pompano Beach, a native of Mexico, was met byrelatives wearing yellow T-shirts emblazoned with his picture and the words“Enrique, Bién Venido.”

”It was very dangerous,” Reyes said, fingering a bouquet ofcanna lilies and goldenrod.

”He’s my only son. It wasn’t easy when it fell to him to goto Iraq,” said Enrique Reyes Sr. “When he wanted to sign up, he needed ourpermission and his mother didn’t want him to go. But I felt we should go alongwith his wishes.”

Getting back was a challenge, even for the combat platoon,nicknamed the ”Voodoo Platoon,” that had spent the past year learning toadapt to ever-changing conditions.

”You’re supposed to have a nice quiet plane ride, but theflight got canceled because the plane was almost shot down. So you ride fivehours in a truck, bouncing and freezing and guns pointed everywhere,” Hartmannsaid. “That’s Voodoo.”

Home at Last

Hundreds Of Families Gather Wednesday At TheNational Guard Armory To Reunite With Loved Ones Who Served In Iraq

By Emily T. Eckland

The past 14 months have been lonely and frustrating for LaurelJustus.

The Hollywood resident’s husband, Daniel, is a captain in the Florida National Guard’s 124th InfantryRegiment, and has been stationed in Iraq since January 2003.

Buton Wednesday, Laurel had a good reason to be happy: Daniel was finally cominghome.

”It’ll be good to be back together and be a family again,”said Laurel, who was excited to see   Daniel and take him to pick up their daughters Stephanie, 10, andDelaney, 3, from school.

Laurel, waving an American flag and wearing red, white andblue beads, arrived at Hollywood’s National Guard Armory with her mother, CarolNelson of Hollywood, and sister Kristi Tucker of Miami, just before noon.

More than 100 other NationalGuard families and friends also arrived to reunite with the approximately120 members of the Alpha Company 1st Battalion of the 124th Infantry Regimentupon their arrival by bus from Fort Stewart, Ga.

Thetwo buses pulled up to the armory minutes before 1 p.m. to a sea of ”WelcomeHome” banners and a cheering crowd. But family and friends got only a few hugsand kisses in before their loved ones were whisked away into the armory for afinal check-in.

At1:15 p.m., the soldiers began filing out of the building, peering over the massof people, banners and balloons to locate their admirers. A luncheon receptionon the armory’s Dowdy Field took place soon thereafter.

The reunion was joyful for Laurel, 31, and Daniel, 36. As soonas Laurel saw her husband getting off the bus, she ran toward him and showeredhim with kisses and hugs.

”It’s an unbelievable feeling. Nothing could ever compare tothis. I never thought this day would happen,” said Daniel, his arms wrappedaround Laurel.

National Guardspecialist and Miami resident Javier Ortiz decided he wanted to get home alittle early to see his fiancée, Yulieth Garcia, and so he bought a car inSavannah and drove down early Wednesday morning.

”Itfeels awesome to be home. [Iraq] was quite an experience. I couldn’t possiblybegin to describe it,” said Ortiz, who was stationed in Ar Ramaei.

Ortiz, who is a correctional officer at the EvergladesCorrectional Facility, said he had big plans for the future: get married and goon a vacation to Puerto Rico to see his parents.

”Hopefully, we won’t have to go back [to Iraq] ever again. Itwas tough dealing with the constant attacks and the explosions on the side ofthe road,” Ortiz, 33, said.

Pembroke Pines resident Marilys Mirabile said being withouther husband, battalion commander Hector Mirabile, for the past year and twomonths was “horrible.”

”Right now I’m so nervous. We have a daughter and it’s beentough for the both of us,” said Mirabile, whose daughter Anais, 12, was takingthe FCAT and could not come.

Although Hector Mirabile has been with the National Guard for 25 years, this washis first time stationed overseas.

”It’sgreat being home. It’s about time!” said Hector Mirabile, who planned to spendthe next few days relaxing with his wife and daughter and possibly vacationingin Disney World.

Hollywood resident Shirley Edwards greeted her son Brent, anE4 specialist, with a poster with his picture on it that read “Welcome HomeCrown Prince.”

”I’m just gonna love him, cuddle him and feed him up, feedhim up real well,” Edwards said.

SoldierComes Home to Two-Thirds the Wife

Gastricbypass helps woman surprise spouse

By R. Norman Moody, Florida Today

Duane Hargis threw his arms open in awe, a broad smile on hisface.

He then wrapped his arms around his wife and held on for aboutfive minutes, not saying a word.

His surprise was showing, for all to see.

While her husband was serving in Iraq, Denise Hargis lostabout a third of her body weight after gastric-bypass surgery. The differencewas stunning, made doubly so by his absence.

“She looks just like she did 16 years ago when we firstgot married,” said Duane Hargis, the excitement brimming.

Hargis never urged his wife to lose weight, even when shereached nearly 300 pounds. But he supported her decision to have the surgery,which has become more popular nationally over the last few years.

She has lost about 95 pounds. Now his enthusiasm is obvious.

“It’s like when we first fell in love,” he said.”It’s like falling in love all over again.”

Denise Hargis waited eagerly for days at Fort Stewart, Ga.,for his arrival from Iraq. It had been more than a year since she had seen herhusband and more than a decade since he has seen her at her present weight.

Specialist Hargis and the Cocoa-based citizen soldiers of the1st Battalion, 124 Infantry of the FloridaNational Guard arrived last week in Fort Stewart, and most are expectedback home in Brevard County in the next few days.

“Heknows what I look like in the face,” Denise said as she awaited his returnlast week.                    “That’s all he’s seen because he made me send him a picture. He’sbegged me to send him photos.   I’ve toldhim ‘No.’ I told him to imagine that he’s meeting me all over again.”

Denise Hargis wanted her trimmed-down size to be a surprise.

It was.

“He knew I had the surgery,” she said. “Hehasn’t seen me at this weight in 13 years.”

She now walks with a little bit of a spring in her step. Shehasn’t felt this healthy in a long time, she said.

“It’s been very positive for her,” said Lori Craig,her close friend. “This is a whole new her. She looks so much like thepictures when they were first married.”

Back then, in 1988, Denise Hargis weighed about 135 pounds.She was 18. He was 20.

The couple have two children, Stephanie, 13, and Justin, 11.

After reaching 275 pounds in recent years and unable to shedthe pounds even after trying a series of diets, she sought the only resort shefelt she had.

“I’ve been heavy a long time,” she said. “Iwent through a lot of depression. I tried the diets. I’d lose a little bit andgain more.”

Her insurance company turned down paying for the surgerybecause it considered the procedure cosmetic, Hargis said. Even after appealsand a recommendation from a doctor that it was for health reasons, it was notapproved.

Then Duane Hargis found out he would be activated. It wasbittersweet news. She would be covered medically under his military insuranceplan, but he would deploy to a war.

“He came and told me, ‘I’m being activated, now you canhave your surgery,’ ” Denise Hargis said. “If it wasn’t for thedeployment, I’d still be 275 pounds or maybe even more.”

“He loved me skinny, he’s loved me fat,” she said.”He just wanted me to be happy.”

But he may also have to adjust his eating, Denise Hargis said.

Craig believes Hargis will be happy with his wife’s new look.

“I think he’s going to see the bride that hemarried,” she said. “She’s healthier now.”

FAMILY SUPPORT:  RETURNISSUES

April 7, 2004 Wednesday

Family Readiness Groups Learn About Resource to Help withReturn Problems

By CHANTAL ESCOTO

About 150 Family Readiness Group leaders gathered at theCampbell Club Tuesday to learn more about preparing hearts and homes for theirreturning soldiers.

Nearly 18,000 101st Airborne Division troops deployed to Iraqearly last year and are slated to return within the next three months. Morethan 600 soldiers from the division’s advance party are arriving this week toprepare for the return.

The news of the Screaming Eagles’ return continued to stirexcitement Tuesday as spouses listened carefully about how to use a newinformation tool called Army One Source.

Military members and their families will have a one-stopsource by telephone or via the Internet for topics from anonymous counseling tofinding a car repair shop in a city where an Army family is relocating.

A company called Ceridian, headquarters in Minneapolis, Minn.,secured a $2.3 million contract with the Army last year and will offer help toactive duty, National Guard and reserves and their families on justabout anything concerning the military. Relocation, financial matters,education, schooling, health, deployment, family support and relationships areamong the topics.

“It’s great because it’s a live person, not justautomated – and it’s anonymous,” said Lisa Harrison, wife of Col. WillHarrison, 159th Aviation Brigade commander. About 80 of the brigade’s soldierswill be on one of the flights coming in today. “This is a good otherresource.”

Although the asset has been available since August 2003, it’snot usually publicized until the Ceridian representatives come to the militaryinstallation to explain the services offered. The company also has contractswith the other service branches.

“Usage usually goes up after each visit (to post),”said deputy program manager, Kurt G. Kampfschulte. Most of the calls receivedby subject experts are for those with emotional problems, but many questionsare also about parenting and child care issues.

Kampfschulte said whenever he briefs spouses, they tell himhow relieved they are to know their husbands have somewhere to turn if theyhave problems, and it doesn’t have to go through their commander.

But Kampfschulte also said some officers have voiced worry tohim that such circumvention could risk the safety of the unit if there’strouble they don’t know about.

“That really hasn’t happened because the counselors talkto the soldiers and (advise) them to bring it to their chain of command,”he said. “They’ll respect them for solving their own problems.”

Deborah Malloy, Family Readiness Group leader for 2ndBattalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, wished she knew about Army One Sourceearlier because deployed soldiers could have used it via the Internet.

“A lot of guys won’t go to counseling, so this beinganonymous is great,” Malloy said. As for preparing for the homecoming,most of the units already held their redeployment briefings and are eager forthe soldiers’ return.

“We’ve decorated our company areas and put welcome homesigns on the barracks’ doors,” Malloy said. “The wives are doing agreat job. It would have been a very hard deployment if we didn’t have eachother.”

BENEFITS

March 11, 2004

Army Promises To Reduce Medical Holds For Reservists

By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes

ARLINGTON, Va. — Army officials are promising reserve component soldiersfound medically unfit to serve that they will not languish waiting for adischarge.

According to a policy issued March 3, Reserve or National Guard soldierswho are being medically discharged or retired will now be released from activeduty no more than 30 days after the Army makes its final ruling, instead of athree-month maximum previously in effect.

The Army’s official goal is to release such soldiers “within five workingdays” once the service’s Physical Disability Agency issues its finaldetermination that the soldier is “unfit” for service, the policy says.

The 30-day window is a “worst-case” scenario, specified, “only to allowinstallations flexibility to handle special cases,” according to the policy.

The full month might be needed, for example, if a soldier’s conditiontakes a sudden turn for the worse while he or she is waiting for dischargepaperwork and must be re-evaluated by the medical board, said Col. FredSchumacher, executive officer and reserve component advisor on the ArmyPhysical Disability Agency.

The new policy “is a recognition that we need to get [reserve soldiers]back to job and family as fast as we can, after appropriate medical treatmentand processing,”  schumacher said.

Previously, Army rules allowed officials to take up to 90 days to wrap upout-processing for any soldier found medically unfit for service after he orshe went through the Army’s physical disability evaluation system.

Active-duty soldiers use the extended out-processing to “essentially begina career shift,” seeking employment outside the Army, as well as finding newhousing for their families, Schumacher said.

The 90-day out-processing maximum remains the standard for active-dutysoldiers.

But reserve component soldiers who have been “medically boarded” are in avery different position, because they have civilian lives, Schumacher said.

The medical board process already takes “several months” beyond asoldier’s actual medical treatment in Army hospitals.

So once the board has issued its final ruling, “it’s pointless to havethem just sitting around,” Schumacher said. “The soldier needs to get on withhis life.”

Delays in out-processing can place a special strain on reservists becausetheir jobs and families are often located far from the active-duty mobilizationstation or an Army medical facility where soldier is required to stay untilofficially discharged.

But the hardships posed by the 90-day out-processing window didn’t reachthe attention of Army officials until large numbers of Army Reserve andNational Guard soldiers began getting called up for Operations Iraqi Freedomand Enduring Freedom.

The “medical hold” issue came to a head last spring with news storiesabout hundreds of reservists stuck for months at Fort Stewart, Ga., waiting fortheir conditions to be evaluated, treated by service doctors, and assessed bythe Army medical board.

American Forces Press Service 

Troops Get Federal Tax Break ForCombat Zone Service

ByGerry J. Gilmore
WASHINGTON, March 11, 2004 – American troops serving in designated combat zonesin support of the war against terrorism continue to get a tax break from UncleSam.

Dependingupon rank, eligible service members can exclude from federal income tax eitherall or some of their active duty pay – and certain other pays – earned in anymonth during service in a designated combat zone.

TheInternal Revenue Service’s Armed Forces’ Tax Guide for 2003 says “a combatzone is any area the president of the United States designates by executiveorder as an area in which the U.S. armed forces are engaging or have engaged incombat.”

Servicemembers who serve one or more days in a designated combat zone are entitled tofederal tax exclusion benefits for that entire month, according to the IRS.

Currentdesignated combat zones include, Afghanistan, Iraq and other specified parts ofthe Persian Gulf region — to include Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain,Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – and parts of the Kosovo area.

Servicemembers in several other areas specified in law as “qualified hazardousduty areas” are eligible for the same tax breaks. Bosnia-Herzegovina, theFormer Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Croatia have been listed since 1995.

Thedownloadable Armed Forces’ Tax Guide for 2003 can be accessed on the IRS Website. It lists many, but not all, designated combat zones.

Someservice members providing direct support for military operations within adesignated combat zone or qualified hazardous duty area, such as Djibouti,Africa, Turkey, Yemen, and the Philippines, are eligible for income taxexclusions.

To bein direct support of a combat zone, a service member must be serving in an areathe secretary of defense determines is directly supporting a combat zone.Service members deployed to Mediterranean waters east of 30 degrees eastlongitude also are eligible for combat zone tax relief, from March 19 to Aug.1, 2003, as an “in direct support” area. Service members serving inIsrael from Jan. 1 to Aug. 1, 2003, also were serving in an “in directsupport” area.

Whilemilitary members can use the tax guide in preparing their 2003 federal taxreturns, those who have specific questions about designated combat zones shouldcontact their unit personnel or pay officials or unit tax assistance officer.

TheIRS guide notes service members normally don’t need to claim the combat zoneexclusion or subtract eligible earnings on their federal tax returns. Theservices normally have already excluded combat zone earnings from the taxablegross income reported on service members’ Form W-2s, the guide says.

TheIRS points out that military retired pay and pensions aren’t eligible as combatzone income tax exclusions.

Inother military pay news, The National Defense Authorization Act for 2004extended the increase in imminent danger pay to $225 per month to eligibleservice members through Dec. 31, 2004.

Theamount of service member federal tax relief depends upon a taxpayer’s rank. Forexample, enlisted troops and warrant officers serving in a designated combatzone or qualified hazardous duty area for any part of a month exclude all grossincome earned for military service that month from federal taxation.

Forcommissioned officers, the monthly income exclusion is capped at the highestenlisted member pay (E-9), plus any hostile fire or imminent danger payreceived. For example, in 2003, the most a commissioned officer could earn tax-free each month was $5,957.70. For 2004, the cap increases to $6,315.90($6,090.90, the highest monthly enlisted pay, plus $225 hostile fire orimminent danger pay.)

TheIRS also allows troops deployed to an area entitled to combat zone taxexclusion extra time to file their federal taxes, usually 180 days after theservice member leaves the combat zone or qualified hazardous duty area.

And,the Military Family Tax Relief Act of 2003 provides certain above-the-line taxdeductions for reservists and National Guard members who travel more than 100miles to attend military drills and meetings. This new provision allowsreservists and Guard members who cannot itemize deductions to still take thesedeductions. This provision is effective for the 2003 tax year.

Theact also provides a $12,000 nontaxable death gratuity to families of servicemembers who die on active duty, retroactive to Sept. 10, 2001.

FORCE STRUCTURE

March 7, 2004 Sunday

Restructuring the National Guard system

The warning order went out from Washington this week to threeenhanced brigades of the Army NationalGuard — the 256th Infantry from Louisiana, the 116th Cavalry from Idahoand Oregon, and the 278th Armored Cavalry from Tennessee. “Get ready to goto Iraq late this year or early next.”

The Department of Defense also alerted 1,000 members of the42nd Infantry Division headquarters from New York state that they would be thefirst Guard headquarters of its size to be tapped for duty in Iraq. Thatamounts to a total of 18,000 citizen soldiers.

Since the events of Sept. 11, 2001 changed the world, the National Guard and Reserves have beencarrying a heavy load in deployments to both peacekeeping missions in Bosniaand Kosovo and combat duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, and this isn’t going tochange anytime soon.

Nearly half — 46 percent — of the 110,000 troops nowrotating into Iraq for a one-year tour of duty are reserves and National Guard. Experts at the Pentagonsay next year’s third shift of troops going into Iraq could include an evenhigher percentage of reserve and Guard troops.

With the active duty Army skinned back to only 10 divisionsand a permanent strength of 480,000, there is no way all the missions the Armyhas been assigned around the world could be carried out without the reservesand National Guard.

Even as troops fan out on tough and deadly missions, thePentagon is moving swiftly to reorganize the National Guard, streamlining an antiquated command structure thatwas designed for mass mobilization for a world war. The Pentagon also has addedoffensive, defensive and communications capabilities to many Guard units,creating “enhanced brigades” that can operate independently.

The Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, isdetermined to modernize and change the NationalGuard and make proper use of it. In return, the Army would guarantee that aNational Guard unit will not spendmore than 12 months on active duty during a five-year period.

The number of enhanced Guard brigades will be increased fromthe present 15 to 22, and they will be trained and equipped to mirror the newmodular Army brigades. This will be achieved by converting excess artillerybattalions and air defense battalions into infantry units. Other Guardbattalions will be converted to needed specialties such as military police.

Even as this is under way, Schoomaker and the Army staff areworking to pull units critically needed in the early days of a deployment forcombat into the active duty Army. This includes such specialties asport-opening units and civil-military affairs units. Defense Secretary DonaldH. Rumsfeld has ordered the Army to balance the force in such a way that Guardand reserve units would not have to be called up during the first 30 days ofany combat operation.

The Army Guard and reserves, totaling 555,000 troops,outnumber the active duty Army. Army leaders know that these part-time soldierscost almost as much as active duty soldiers, and they are determined to gettheir money’s worth out of them.

Army leaders hope that by making better use of a modernizedArmy National Guard and ArmyReserve, and squeezing new combat soldier positions from a transformed activeduty force, they can avoid any costly permanent increases in the size of theactive Army.

Schoomaker believes privatization of soldier office jobs willrecapture 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers for combat duty. He also plans to reducethe number of soldiers — now 75,000-plus — who are in movement at any giventime, such as transferring, going to or from schools, or entering or leavingservice. He believes that number can be reduced by at least 15,000 soldiers,leaving them in their units doing the jobs they were hired to do.

With those 30,000 recaptured positions and the 30,000additional troops approved by Rumsfeld as a temporary four-year increase inArmy strength, the Army chief believes he can get by without a large permanentincrease in the force, which would cost billions and be extremely difficult tofinance in future budgets.

Schoomaker hopes that the current high level of deployments inAfghanistan and Iraq represents a peak, not a plateau. If the future turns outto be just as busy as the present in the need for armed might, then the UnitedStates may well need a bigger Army to do its usiness. If that is the caseSchoomaker has told Congress and his bosses in the Department of Defense thathe will come back and say so and ask for the troops needed.

Joseph L. Galloway is the senior military correspondent forKnight Ridder Newspapers and co-author of the national best-seller ”We WereSoldiers Once… and Young.” Readers may write to him at: Knight RidderWashington Bureau, 700 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045.

By Master Sgt. Bob Haskell
National Guard Bureau
WASHINGTON (3/1/2004) — Governors will be able to call on atleast 50 percent of their National Guard forces for homeland defense missionsand other state emergencies because of a plan to realign Army and Air Guardunits during the next few years, the chief of the National Guard Bureaupromised in late February.

“We will balance our forces, focusing on the right force mix and the rightkinds of units with the right capabilities in every state and territory,” vowedLt. Gen. H Steven Blum while addressing the National Governors Association’swinter meeting here in the nation’s capital.

The intent is to have no more than 50 percent of the 460,000-member Guard forceinvolved in the nation’s war fighting effort at any given time so that between50 and 75 percent of the force can be available “on a no-notice, immediatebasis” for missions on their home turf, the Guard Bureau chief told thecommanders-in-chief of the 54 states and territories.

“We must develop a predictive deployment model … that ensures the [Guard] forceis managed to permit approximately 25 percent to be deployed to the war-fight;with another 25 percent training to replace those already deployed; andensuring that a minimum of 50 percent remains available to the governors forstate missions, homeland defense, and support for homeland securityoperations,” Blum said.

“To get to this end-state, we are going through a top-to-bottom rebalancingnationwide,” Blum explained. “It will result in a more evenly distributedburden sharing throughout the Guard, enhanced capabilities in the NationalGuard in each state, and a better level of predictability for when the forcemay be needed.”

The model will be based on a goal of no more than one substantial deploymentevery five or six years for Army Guard soldiers and one deployment every 15months for members of the Air Guard, he added.

Blum also asked the governors to support legislation that the DefenseDepartment has proposed to expand the authority of Title 32 of the U.S. code.

“The proposal would permit expanded use of federally funded National Guardforces, under the respective governor’s control, for homeland defense andsupport for homeland security operations. This is the best of both worlds forall concerned,” Blum said.

The 367-year-old National Guard has already transformed itself into a morereliable, ready, relevant and accessible force for the global war againstterrorism, Blum assured the governors as he neared the end of the first of hisfour years as the Guard Bureau’s chief.

“To date, your adjutants general have consolidated 162 … headquartersorganizations into 54 standing joint force headquarters,” said Blum, whoinitiated the transformation last May.

“In times of emergency, your standing joint force headquarters provides forrapid response and better integration of National Guard assistance from yourneighboring states through existing Emergency Mutual Assistance Compacts,” Blumexplained.

“Additionally, the standing joint force headquarters provide improved access toall Department of Defense assets within your state or territory, should they beneeded,” he added.

“We do not foresee a reduction in the number of people in the Guard,” saidBlum. “We do see a National Guard with enhanced capabilities to perform all ofits missions.”

Guard members have performed extremely well during the war against terrorism,Blum said.

“In combat, the performance of our soldiers and airmen has been magnificent,”he observed. “They bring civilian acquired skills and life experiencesunmatched by their active counterparts and are even more effective because ofthis. They are America’s home team. And they bring your communities and thosevalues to the fight.

At the current deployment rate, 80 percent of the Guard’s forces will be combatveterans as well as homeland security veterans within the next 36 months, Blumpredicted.

“The numbers vary daily and have ranged as high as 75 percent of one state’sNational Guard being deployed,” Blum said. “Governors and adjutants generalhave told me this is unacceptable.”

That is why it is time to even the load among all of the states, he asserted.

“I cannot deliver this model today because our Guard force is not properlybalanced … among the states, nor is it properly balanced among the active,Guard and Reserve [forces],” Blum said.

“But when accomplished,” he said, “it will provide you, thecommanders-in-chief, the maximum possible capabilities at your disposal forstate missions, homeland defense and support for homeland security missions.

“This model will ensure that no governor is left without sufficientcapabilities in the state.”

GENERAL

March 12, 2004 Friday

MinisterGets Support After Family Deaths 

By Robin Fitzgerald

A youth minister and military family support coordinator knownfrom Pascagoula to the Pearl River is getting some of the encouragement hegives others.

The Rev. John Gallardo, whose 19-year-old daughter, Candy, and7-month-old grandson, Matthew, died in a traffic accident Wednesday, is gettingmoral and spiritual support from people across South Mississippi.

The crash on U.S. 49 in Saucier also injured another grandson,5-year-old Aaron Gallardo, and the other driver, 17-year-old Tiffany Ladner.

The show of concern comes from those who know Gallardo throughhis volunteer work with the Army National Guard 890th EngineeringBattalion, Youth for Christ’s Campus Life programs at schools and his youthministry job at Faithview Baptist Church in Saucier.

Before the accident, Gallardo was making arrangements for a”welcome home” for soldiers returning from Iraq, but others havestepped in to help, said Kathie Ladner, supervisor of the National GuardFamily Assistance Center. She is not related to Tiffany Ladner.

Others are calling, visiting and making donations to theGallardo Family Memorial Account at Hancock Bank. Many, such as students atTrent Lott Middle School in Pascagoula, are praying.

A youth meeting before school at Bay St. Louis High Schoolalso had a profound response, said Brad Holt, Youth for Christ executivedirector.

“They prayed, and 13 teenagers made a first-timeprofession of faith. What spurred it is what happened in John’s family,”Holt said.

Aaron’s spleen was removed in surgery, and he may be moved outof intensive care today.

“He’s asking for his Leap Pad and asking his Grandpa whenhe can go home,” Ladner said.

Tiffany Ladner, who also is at Garden Park, suffered a brokenankle and jaw, Holt said.

“We haven’t forgotten about her. I’ve spoken with herparents and plan to visit her tonight,” he said.

March 14,2004

NortheasternIndiana Recruiters Say New Recruits Keep Coming

DATELINE: FORTWAYNE, Ind.

Defying a national trend, recruiters for National Guard and Army reserve units in northeastern Indiana saythey are having no trouble finding new recruits to join the part-time units.

“There’s probably not a better place in the Midwest to bea recruiter,” said John Sylvestri, commander of the Army Reserve’s FortWayne recruiting company. “We have a lot of patriotic men and women whowant to serve their country.”

Nationally, the ranks of the National Guard and Army Reserve have dwindled nationally since aspike in recruitment after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But that’s not been the case across northeastern Indiana.

Two National Guardunits in the Fort Wayne area report being 100 percent manned.

And Sylvestri, whose office recruits for both the reserves andthe U.S. Army, said Fort Wayne’s local Army Reserve units have been at morethan 100 percent enlistment for the past three years.

Still, the shrinking ranks of the National Guard and Army Reserve in other states have Pentagon andstate government officials worried these forces will shrink even more asthousands of reserve and guard troops return from operations in the Mideast.

Guard members and reservists are expected to make up 40percent of the troops stationed in Iraq after a massive troop rotation thisspring.

Across the nation, state governors are concerned that a large numberof people leaving the service at one time – either for retirement or to jointhe military full time – could hamper traditional guard duties such as disasterresponse.

Lengthy deployments and the ongoing war in Iraq have not keptcandidates away from recruiters, Sylvestri said.

“If anything, it’s helping our regular Armynumbers,” he said. “Because we’re fighting a war on terrorism, theydecide to go into the regular Army.”

However, the U.S. Army put out an order temporarily stoppingany eligible service member from retiring, said Captain Lisa Kopczynski, statepublic affairs officer for the Army and Air National Guard.

About 20 percent of Indiana’s Army National Guard units are currently deployed either overseas or todomestic missions, Kopczynski said. She declined to give specific recruitingnumbers but said those numbers have remained steady over the past year.

Statewide, the Army Reserves has had steady recruiting numbersuntil late 2003, when the number of new enlistments dropped from 192 in the fallto 154 by the end of December. Enlistments are expected to hit the 200 mark bythe end of this month, said Mary Auer, public affairs officer for the Indianarecruiting district.

The Indiana Air NationalGuard 122nd fighter wing, based in Fort Wayne, has been at full strengthfor more than four years, said Lt. Lauri Turpin, community manager for thelocal unit.

Few Guard members retired last year and the fighter wing hasenough new recruits to fill those empty slots and man the air base, Turpinsaid.

–End—