Posted on 12/27/2004 5:31:17 AM PST by Max Combined
500 soldiers were assigned to Fort Sam Houston
FORT SAM HOUSTON - While many Texas families spent Sunday snapping up post-Christmas bargains, nearly 500 soldiers on this post enjoyed a last meal with their loved ones before shipping out for a year in Iraq.
Most of the soldiers are Army reservists assigned to the 228th Combat Support Hospital. Their ranks include doctors, nurses, X-ray technicians and other medical support specialists.
Families packed a gymnasium for a brief sendoff ceremony and then they had lunch together in a Fort Sam Houston dining hall before the gear-laden soldiers boarded planes to fly to Kuwait.
They are ultimately heading to two of Iraq's most dangerous areas: the northern city of Mosul and Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown in the so-called Sunni Triangle.
"It is up to you to make the 228th a hospital in every sense of the word," Brig. Gen. C. William Fox, commander of Brooke Army Medical Center, told troops during the sendoff. "It is up to you to work together to save lives."
Last week a bomb in an Army dining tent in Mosul killed more than 20 people, among them 14 soldiers.
"It had some problems this week," Col. Lester McGilvray, the 228th's commander, said of Mosul. "But morale (in his unit) is high. Leaving is always tough, but we are ready to go."
Art Hastings, a mobilization coordinator at Fort Sam Houston, said the troops have known since summer that they would be deploying to Iraq.
"Most of the soldiers are Army reservists assigned to the 228th Combat Support Hospital. Their ranks include doctors, nurses, X-ray technicians and other medical support specialists."
May the Lord watch over these who heal and save lives.
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