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So beautiful, Meg!
Thanks for gracing the Canteen with your wonderful tables. We all enjoy them!
Thank you so much Meg.
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Thanks Ladies, for the pings!
Great presentations...
300 Texas Guardsmen head for Iraq
Ellington-based copter crews on year's deployment
By JOHN W. GONZALEZ
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
KILLEEN - About 300 Texas Army National Guardsmen based at Ellington Field in Houston bid farewell to their families Sunday as they embarked on a yearlong deployment to Iraq.
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The combat helicopter crews, joined by 100 troops from other states, have already been on active-duty status for six months for specialized air combat training at nearby Fort Hood and elsewhere.
Now it's time for the 1-149th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion to join the fray, and leaders said they're fully prepared and equipped with the Army's most sophisticated and lethal attack helicopters.
Hundreds of family members, friends and civilian employers attended the send-off at Killeen ISD's Leo Buckley Stadium, where leaders assured the well-wishers that the troops were fully prepared for war.
"The reason we're here is, we're trained killers. We've got the most formidable, menacing piece of equipment on that battlefield, the AH-64A Apache," said Lt. Col. Richard Adams of Houston.
"There's a lot more bad guys out there. We're going to find them. We're going to kill them. That's what we do," he said, and he added: "be proud."
Adams said the Guard unit had 23 Apache pilots 15 months ago when it learned of the deployment. Now it has 71 pilots as well as scores of crew chiefs, mechanics, avionics experts and gunners who come from many walks of civilian life.
The families they leave behind won't be forgotten, Adams said.
"Our heads won't be right if we don't know you're OK," he told the families, encouraging them to take advantage of the Guard's family support services.
Brig. Gen. John Furlow, commander of the Guard's 36th Division, said the battalion is a crucial part of the war effort.
"In the past, there were terms like 'weekend warrior' used for Guard personnel. That is now myth that no longer applies to the National Guard. The U.S. simply cannot support its critical national military objectives without our participation," Furlow said.
Helicopters upgraded
Troops "are the only ones who can guarantee your freedom," he added. "The policy-makers cannot. The bureaucrat cannot. Only boots on the ground who are well-trained, well-equipped and well-manned can preserve the freedom we have come to treasure," Furlow said.
The training, though protracted, was essential to ensure the troops' safety and the success of their mission, said Maj. Gen. John Yingling, deputy commander of the 1st U.S. Army, which oversees Guard training.
"I stand before the steely-eyed, flat-bellied killers of the 'Renegade Battalion.' The Army knows you can do the job. Your leaders are ready. The soldiers are ready. All are battle-ready," he declared.
In addition to extensive air combat training, the unit upgraded helicopters and modified them for desert warfare. They also performed command-post exercises and trained for rocket interdiction, cordon and search, route reconnaissance and detainee escort duties, Yingling said.
Joining the Ellington-based troops were soldiers from Mississippi, Missouri, and Pennsylvania, and "some of these states have not been on the field of battle together since probably Gettysburg," Yingling said.
Thousands of rounds
Along the way, the 31 Apache crews that were qualified for combat fired an estimated 30,000 ammunition rounds, 4,500 rockets and 33 Hellfire missiles, Yingling said.
"All individual and collective training objectives have been met while the battalion simultaneously fielded new equipment and modified the old," Yingling said.
"At this time, you are the best-trained and equipped AH-64A battalion in the U.S. Army," he said.
"We're as ready as we're going to be," said Apache pilot 1st Lt. Todd Casterline of Austin. "We're just ready to go and get it done and get back," he said.
For Spc. Jesus Lopez of Houston, an oil-rig worker as a civilian and a helicopter electrician in the Guard, the Iraq deployment is his second.
"We work a lot of hours because we've always got to have our helicopters up," he said. He hopes to return on leave when his wife gives birth in seven months.
Mauro Rodriguez of Houston was sad to see his son, Sgt. Mario Martinez, deploy for the first time.
"We just hope God helps him where he's going," Rodriguez said.
There will be more goodbyes at the same stadium July 30, when the remainder of the 36th Combat Aviation Brigade deploys to Iraq.
john.gonzalez@chron.com
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/front/4050839
