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ACTIVE DUTY
3,000 National Guard soldiers from Texas prepare for Iraq
By Chris Vaughn
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH - Staring across as soldiers lined up six and seven deep and their moms and dads, wives and sons scouted for seats, Command Sgt. Maj. Eddie Chambliss is fully aware of what it means to be him.

On Chambliss, an employee of a chemical plant on the Gulf Coast and the father of two, falls the responsibility for the welfare of most of the 3,000 men and women of the 56th Brigade of the Texas National Guard as they prepare for deployment to Iraq.

Sunday marked the brigade's first day on active duty, no longer citizen/soldiers, just soldiers. "The responsibility of bringing all these soldiers back is a big one," said Chambliss, shortly before leaving for an advance trip to Iraq. "There's so much stuff going through my head. I'm praying that everything will be all right. Lots of people are praying that."

It's been 64 years since so many National Guard troops from Texas were mobilized for deployment overseas, and that was for a world war.

This time, the call-up is for the aftermath of a war, an effort that has proved far bloodier and trickier than originally envisioned by its planners in Washington.

So far, 930 U.S. service members have died in Iraq since the invasion began in March 2003.

The 56th Brigade, one of four major brigades of the Guard's 36th Infantry Division, is headquartered in Fort Worth but has units spread across North and West Texas, including Arlington, Irving, Weatherford, Denton, Stephenville and Brownwood.

About 600 soldiers reported for duty Sunday at Naval Air Station Fort Worth, where the state's senior military leaders and Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief saluted them during an hourlong ceremony.

"Before you are the finest soldiers of the world," said Col. James "Red" Brown, the brigade commander and a business owner in Tyler. "They represent everything that is good about our nation."

The soldiers begin moving to Fort Hood this week, where they will undergo five months of training in marksmanship, convoy operations, crowd control, weapons systems and more.

Early next year, they will be stationed in Iraq, probably near Baghdad, for at least 12 months. They will be among at least six National Guard combat brigades there, representing more than half the Army presence.

"Doing difficult things is what our military does," said Maj. Gen. Michael Taylor, the division commander. "That's why they call it service."

That certainly rings true for Spc. Cristina Mungilla, an architecture student at the University of Texas at Arlington and a single mother of a 2-year-old girl.

Mungilla's enlistment in the Guard ended June 30, but she didn't get out. Once the unit was put on alert status in May, her enlistment was involuntarily extended until they return from Iraq.

She's OK with that because it's her duty to go when they need her, she said.

But that doesn't mean it's not painful.

"If my daughter was a little older and could maybe understand, it would be one thing," she said. "But she's 2."

Mungilla's mother is going to keep Karina while she's gone and take her to Fort Hood as often as she can the next few months.

"She is so worried that her daughter won't know her when she comes back," her mother, Claudia Pedraza, said. "Every other worry she has is secondary to that."

For a few people, though, Iraq was a volunteer assignment. Capt. Jason Romine, who left the active duty Army in December, volunteered even though his unit in Killeen isn't in the brigade.

He'll be serving on the staff of the 2nd Battalion, 142nd Infantry Regiment, a group of soldiers he hadn't even met by Sunday.

He raised his hand to go to Iraq because his former unit at Fort Hood was sent to Iraq late last year without him.

"I was feeling bad for sending them and not going myself," he said. "I have soldiers over there now."

Moncrief, like most of the speakers, thanked the soldiers' families for sharing equally in military service.

"They need you now more than they ever have," he told the family members. "Your country needs you now more than ever. We want you to know we appreciate your sacrifices."

Chris Vaughn, (817) 390-7547 cvaughn@star-telegram.com

Bush announces major troop realignment

By Matt Kelley

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Two Army divisions will return to the United States from Germany as part of a global military restructuring that President Bush says will bring up to 70,000 American troops home in the next decade.

Pentagon officials said Monday the 1st Armored Division and 1st Infantry Division probably won't start leaving their bases in Germany until 2006 at the earliest. They will be replaced by a brigade _ a much smaller unit _ equipped with Stryker armored vehicles, which are much lighter and quicker than the M1A1 Abrams tanks used by the divisions they will replace.

The more than 70,000 U.S. troops in Germany are a legacy of the Cold War, when they faced off with forces of the former Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact. Each division has about 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers.

The United States will close nearly half of its hundreds of installations in Europe as part of the massive restructuring plan, three senior defense officials and a State Department official told Pentagon reporters on condition of anonymity. A Pentagon spokesman said the officials had to speak anonymously because "President Bush made the announcement."

That announcement came in Cincinnati on Monday morning, where Bush told a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention that the moves were meant to enable the United States to react more quickly to developing trouble spots.

"Our armed forces have changed a lot. ... They're better able to strike anywhere in the world ... on short notice," Bush said. "Yet for decades America's armed forces have essentially remained where the wars of the last century have ended _ in Europe and in Asia."

The Pentagon and State Department officials offered few specifics about the plan, saying negotiations with U.S. allies continue. Particularly sensitive are talks involving Japan, which hosts more than 40,000 U.S. troops, and South Korea, where officials say about one-third of the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed there will be leaving in coming years.

The changes would not affect the more than 150,000 U.S. troops involved in or supporting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The restructuring has been discussed for years. Bush administration officials say the realignment is needed to move from a Cold War structure to a more flexible one better suited to the war against terrorism.

At the Cincinnati convention, veterans wearing the group's trademark caps covered with colorful pins gave Bush a warm welcome. Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry addresses the group Wednesday.

The president said the repositioning of forces would help save money on maintaining bases overseas and give troops and their families more stability.

"Our service members will have more time on the home front, and more predictability and fewer moves over a career," Bush added.

His speech came as the U.S. death toll in Iraq was approaching 1,000 and National Guard and Reserve troops were serving extended tours of duty.

Kerry aides blame a lack of postwar planning by the Bush administration for the increased burden shouldered by reservists and guard members. They also note that the Massachusetts senator has proposed adding 40,000 troops to the regular Army and expanding special operations forces.

The Democrat has said he would try to withdraw some troops from Iraq during his first six months in office. Bush has criticized that idea, saying would inspire insurgents to wait until the U.S. presence was thinned before attacking.

The VFW convention is getting special attention from both political parties partly because it is being held in Ohio, perhaps the hottest battlefield of this year's election. Bush carried Ohio by 3.6 percentage points in 2000 over Democrat Al Gore.