Posted on 04/29/2003 1:29:06 PM PDT by 68skylark
NAJAF, Iraq (AP) -- ``We brought everyone home alive.'' For Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, that was the best of a string of accomplishments as his troops in the 82nd Airborne Division prepared to leave Iraq.
They cleared several cities of Saddam Hussein's paramilitary. They protected supply lines from snipers and rearguard ambushes. They coordinated security for a Shiite Muslim pilgrimage by some 1 million faithful.
This week, some 1,200 soldiers of the 82nd -- a group trained for rapid deployment known as America's 911 force -- began heading for Kuwait, expecting to be stateside by mid-May.
They are the first major Army unit to head home.
``They want us to go back there to get ready in case another contingency comes up,'' said Capt. Jimmie Cummings, division spokesman. One of the division's three brigades is kept always ready for airlift worldwide within 18 hours of an order.
When the war began, the division was poised to parachute into Baghdad if Saddam's regime collapsed suddenly. Instead, it protected supply lines and rooted out resistance bypassed by the main attacking units.
Lately, they've been distributing humanitarian aid and handing over sectors of southern Iraq to U.S. Marines.
One brigade of the 82nd will be left behind. Another is deployed in Afghanistan and the third at Ft. Bragg.
``This place is getting back to normalcy very, very quickly. Of all the places I've served, Iraq has the best prospects for the future,'' said Swannack, the division commander, whose 32-year career has taken him to Panama, Haiti and Bosnia.
Sgt. Andrea Baker, supervising preparation of the last hot meals at the compound outside this southern Iraq city, said she missed ``all the things we take for granted -- running water, a toilet, a bed, a warm body next to me.''
Still, she was ``indifferent'' about going home. ``I love this kind of stuff. They call me a field rat. If I had to stay out longer I wouldn't mind it,'' said Baker, 23, of Las Vegas, N.M. ``My husband and I prepared ourselves mentally for six months of separation and it will only be three months.''
And there were other doubts. ``We'll get good support from the community around Ft. Bragg, but among the general public I think it will be a mixed reception because a lot of people didn't support the war,'' Baker said.
Still, she felt she made a contribution as a woman: ``The local women seem to get quite a shock when they see us driving a car or carrying a rifle. I hope it's an inspiration for them to see they are worth more than the poor way they are treated.''
Spc. Andrew Kosterman, of Racine, Wis., came as a combat cameraman. But he doesn't need to look at his photos to recall April 3, the day Swannack said was perhaps the 82nd's toughest in Iraq.
Told to ``just go out and cover the infantry,'' Kosterman found himself shooting photographs and ducking for cover as troops crossed the Euphrates River and into the city of Samawah in a violent, pre-dawn assault.
AC-130 gunships raked the battlefield and artillery shells whistled overhead. A taxi sped toward Kosterman, a gunman spraying bullets from an AK-47 rifle before a machine gunner atop a Humvee opened fire, dissolving the vehicle's windshield into a mosaic of blood and glass. It was three days before Kosterman's 21st birthday.
``All I want to do when I get back is the normal stuff. My friends are going to college and having fun at parties, and I'm here fighting a war,'' he said.
Maj. John Copp, of Cincinnati, Ohio, was taking back a different memory from Khan Ar Rahbah, an ancient, partially ruined fortress south of Najaf where some 250 villagers, their donkeys and camels, barely survive in the harsh desert.
As a sandstorm swirled around them, soldiers distributed food and water, and the officer handed the village head man a fortune -- $300 to compensate for gravel an engineering unit had earlier hauled away for a construction project.
``We're trained to kill and destroy. But what I'm proudest of in my career is the help we've been able to give people,'' he said. ``Maybe it's a sense of guilt.''
``We'll get good support from the community around Ft. Bragg, but among the general public I think it will be a mixed reception because a lot of people didn't support the war,'' Baker said.
I think Sgt. Baker has underestimated the support for the troops and all they've accomplished. When she returns I hope she'll get a sense for how grateful the whole nation feels for the service of our troops.
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Wow, I haven't seen this anywhere before! Was that supposed to be part of the "shock and awe" strategy?
Yeah I understand the "loose lips..." idea... But I I might have read something in the news about there being some rotation schedule for for our presence in Afghan. I know we had something like that for the Balkans.
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