Posted on 12/31/2005 1:21:36 AM PST by Straight Vermonter
This time it will be the Vermont Air Guard that draws the duty in Iraq. Several hundred airmen will be stationed there when the next deployment is complete
Gov. Jim Douglas quipped, "One of your colleagues said to me recently, 'I'm just telling my friends I'm going somewhere warm for the winter."
It was a joke that many Vermonters in uniform could understand and relate to. The Air Guard, with nearly 1000 members, can expect significant call ups every eighteen months, in which elements of the 158th Fighter Wing are integrated into the active service. A year-and-a-half ago, 350 Vermont Air Guard members served in Qatar.
This time the Air Guard expects to send more than 400 airmen and women to Iraq itself. That's almost half of the Air Guard in the state. Most of them won't leave until late March. Only four members attended a short deployment ceremony this morning. Officials say two others were making arrangements with their employers for the upcoming mission. Officials say an unspecified number of Air Guard F-16s will be flown to Iraq in January. Exactly where they will be based remains classified information.
Gen. Bill Noyes told the four, "Thank you for stepping up to the plate, volunteering for this mission for a full 120 days." All of them volunteered for the rotation that has been extended from ninety days to 120 days. Counting from the initial deployments of the first four to leave -- early next week -- this means that all of the Vermonters could be expected to complete their mission by the end of May.
The Vermont Air Guard will join active forces as part of an Air Expeditionary Wing -- known as an AEW. Once again, the families of the deployed will juggle their lives and worry about their loved ones, a concern that they have learned to deal with since regular rotations were made a relatively predictable occurrence.
The formal announcement and sendoff includes ceremony and tradition that goes back to the roots of the Green Mountain Boys in Revolutionary times. Blue star banners dating from World War One will be displayed by deployed members' families at home. The green battle flag with blue stars will accompany the airmen and women on their mission -- the official unit flag and small personal flags.
The four Vermont Air Guard members who attended the initial deployment ceremony are:
Senior Master Sgt. Gary Hopper, Master Sgt. Vince Dober, Tech. Sgt. Colleen O'Neil and Senior Airman Andrew Hale.
May God Bless and protect each and everyone of these fine Patriots
God Bless the Vermont Air Guard and thank you for your service to our country!
I thank you for the sentiment but I want to be clear that I am not in the guard. I simply wanted to point out what these folks are doing for the country.
Try to imagine the sacrifice of leaving their families and all the while their neighbors are telling their families that it is an illegal immoral war.
It doesn't matter what the non sayers may think or say
These brave men and women know what they are doing is the right thing and that is why all of them volunteered for the rotation
It's folks like the Vermont Air Guard that make our country so great
They are the ones that are standing up and defending freedom .. not only here at home .. but also across the world
And the non sayers are ignorant fools who don't have a clue of what life without freedom and rights is truly like
Amen.
Thank you. I get sick of the constant Vermont bashing here, it's nice to see something positive for a change.
I have a good friend who is a VT Army Guard helicopter pilot and he's over in the Sandbox for 18 mos at this time. He was in Bosnia 2 years ago.
And I think I read that per-capita we've lost a higher percentage of our soldiers than any other state, or close to it.
LQ, another Vermonter
Obviously I have nothing against "red states" but "blue state" Vermonters are making the ultimate sacrifice for all of us, red or blue.
How could this be?
Don't people join the reserves, National Guard, and Air National Guard to AVOID going to war (like the EVIL George Bush did)? (/sarcasm)
Another chapter in the history of the brave and patriotic Green Mountain Boys.
Godspeed Vermonters!
I suspect Vermont is like Washington or California - outside the urban areas, a great (and conservative) place!
Vermont has the I-89 corridor that is rabidly liberal. The rest have maintained their sanity.
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